^«ri^^-rf^- nX 




;FeHx M, Wurh-at 



m 




QassID ^ 3^ ^ 

Book il.Aj\£l2. 



The C>hicago Conference 

of the 
American Jewish Relief Committee 



A N official record of the 

proceedings of the 

sessions held at the Standard 

Club, September 24-25, 1921. 






'^\^ 

^^^ 



^^3^ 



ytim 1Dkit«HMM« 



ST 



> 




H 
Z 

u 

CO 

u 

Pi 

u 
(/> 

O 
H 
O 

z 

o 

< 



The Invitation 

September 14, 1921 

The American Jewish Relief Committee has been 
asked by the Chicago committee to call a National Con- 
ference of the representatives of the American Jewish 
Relief Committee throughout the country. By reason of 
its convenient location, Chicago has been designated as 
the place for this meeting, which will be held on Satur- 
day, September 24th, and Sunday, September 25th, at 
the Standard Club, 2400 Michigan Avenue. 

The conference which we are calling will in no way be 
an appeal for funds, but will undertake to determine the 
advisability of conducting a national fund raising cam- 
paign, methods to be employed, and other questions per- 
taining to this subject. This meeting will be the first 
gathering of the leaders of American Jewry from all 
sections of the country to discuss the critical condition 
and the future of the Jews in Eastern Europe. We plan 
to bring together the men who, during the last five years, 
through their splendid efforts, have made possible the 
securing of the funds required for the keeping alive of 
thousands of our co-religionists in Eastern and Central 
Europe. It is imperative that the people who have done 
this great work should decide as to the future activities 
of the American Jewish Relief Committee and the Joint 
Distribution Committee. Both of these committees will 
be represented at the conference by Mr. Felix M. War- 
burg, Col. Herbert H. Lehman, ourselves, and other 
associates. 

The sole aim of the conference is to bring the leading 
Jews of America into intimate, personal contact and 
make it possible for them to get a comprehensive and 
sympathetic understanding of the problem of the Jew in 
Europe and determine upon means of helping him. 

We are writing to you with the earnest request that 
you attend this very important meeting. Please wire 
your acceptance within three days to Mr. Julius Rosen- 
wald. Sears, Roebuck & Co., Chicago, Illinois. 

In the same spirit in which you have made sacrifices 
in the past, we ask you to come to this family gathering 
to help us in the solution of the difficulties confronting 
our unfortunate brethren across the water. 

Yours cordially, 

JULIUS ROSENWALD, 

Chairman, Invitation Committee. 

LOUIS MARSHALL, 
Chairman, American Jewish Relief Committee. 

A. G. Becker Paul Baerwald 

James H. Becker Howard S. Gans 

Gen. Abel Davis Col. H. A. Guinzburg 

Samuel Deutsch Arthur Lehman 

Max Epstein Herbert H. Lehman 

M. E. Greenebaum Judge Otto A. Rosalsky 

Sol Kline Nathan Straus 

Adolf Kraus Cyrus L. Sulzberger 

Charles Rubens Felix M. Warburg 



INVITATIONS 

were sent to Jewish relief leaders in the communities 

throughout the country. The complete list of those 

invited follows: 



ALABAMA 

Joe Sacks, Anniston 

Coleman Black, Birmingham 

Sam Black, Birmingham 

Major M. M. UUman, Birmingham 

Julius Hammel, Mobile 

Simon Gassenheimer, Montgomery 

L. Thalheimer, Selma 

ARKANSAS 

I. H. Nakdiman, Fort Smith 
B. Seelig, Helena 
Phil Levy, Hot Springs 
Ike Kempner, Little Rock 
Simon Bloom, Pine Bluff 

ARIZONA 

David Goldberg, Phoenix 
S. B. Goldman, Tucson 

CALIFORNIA 

Joseph Redlick, Bakersfield 
L. M. Mendelsohn, Fresno 
Louis M. Cole, Los Angeles 
Frederick Kahn, Oakland 
Simon J. Lubin, Sacramento 
Samuel I. Fox, San Diego 
Mortimer Fleischhacker, 

San Francisco 
Moses A. Gunst, San Francisco 
Max Levy, Stockton 

COLORADO 

Henry Sachs, Colorado Springs 
Oscar Livermore, 

Colorado Springs 
Samuel E. Kohn, Denver 
Hyman Isaacs, Leadville 
S. Bernheim, Pueblo 

CONNECTICUT 

Charles H. Shapiro, Bridgeport 

Asher Papish, Danbury 

J. S. Silver, Hartford 

J. Slade, New London 

Morris D. Saxe, New Britain 

Col. Isaac M. Ullman, New Haven 

S. Roodner, Norwalk 

Louis M. Raffel, Waterbury 

DELAWARE 

Henry D. Dorzbach, Dover 
Sol Wilson, Newark 
David Snellenburg, Wilmington 
Nathan Miller, Wilmington 
Louis Topkis, Wilmington 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 

Simon Lyon, Washington 

FLORIDA 

Julius Hirschberg, Jacksonville 
Jacob Aronowitz, Key West 
Isidor Cohen, Miami 
Morris Bear, Pensacola 
S. Mendelson, Tallahassee 
Abe Maas, Tampa 
Fred Wolf, Tampa 

GEORGIA 

Leopold Adler, Savannah 
S. B. Brown, Albany 
V. H. Kriegshaber, Atlanta 
Armand May, Atlanta 
M. G. Michael, Athens 
Albert Fendig, Brunswick 
Leo Loewenherz, Columbus 
Hon. Izzie Bashinski, Dublin 
L. I. Waxelbaum, Macon 
Judge Max Meyerhardt, Rome 
Edwin M. Frank, Savannah 

IDAHO 

Gov. Moses Alexander, Boise 
ILLINOIS 

Judge Samuel Alschuler, Aurora 
Jos. Saenger, Belleville 
S. J. Michelson, Cairo 
Isaac Kuhn, Champaign 
Samuel Jaffe, Chicago 
A. G. Becker, Chicago 
James H. Becker, Chicago 
Marcy I. Berger, Chicago 
Abel Davis, Chicago 
James Davis, Chicago 
Samuel Deutsch, Chicago 
Joseph Feuchtwanger, Chicago 
Judge Harry M. Fisher, Chicago 
M. E. Greenebaum, Chicago 
Dr. Emil G. Hirsch, Chicago 
L. M. Katz, Chicago 
Sol Kline, Chicago 
Adolf Kraus, Chicago 
L. Liederman, Chicago 
Samuel Phillipson, Chicago 
Julius Rosenwald, Chicago 
M. S. Rosenwald, Chicago 
Charles Rubens, Chicago 
Louis S. Berlin, Chicago 
Louis M. Cahn, Chicago 
Mrs. Israel Cowen, Chicago 
Leon Fram, Chicago 
Nathan D. Kaplan, Chicago 



M. J. Karpf, Chicago 
Max Klee, Chicago 
Hyman N. Kohn, Chicago 
Dr. Gerson B. Levy, Chicago 
Rabbi Fehx A. Levy, Chicago 
Jacob M. Loeb, Chicago 
Julius Savitky, Chicago 
Dr. I. Schanfarber, Chicago 
Samuel Schweitzer, Chicago 

A. B. Seelenfreund, Chicago 
Philip Seman, Chicago 

Dr. Samuel Schwartz, Chicago 
Max Shulman, Chicago 
Dr. George Sultan, Chicago 
Dr. Joseph Stolz, Chicago 
Elkan C. Voorsanger, Chicago 
Rabbi S. Felix Mendelsohn, 

Chicago 
S. J. Rosenblatt, Chicago 

B. J. Epstein, Danville 
Max Atiass, Decatur 

Samuel B. Bensinger, E. St. Louis 
Simon Klee, Evanston 
B. Michelson, Galesburg 
Max Sklovsky, Moline 

A. Warsaw, Ottawa 
W. B. Woolner, Peoria 
J. J. Reib, Quincy 

Charles Shanhouse, Rockford 
Henry Morris, Rock Island 

B. A. Lange, Springfield 
David Benjamin, Springfield 
Albert Myers, Springfield 
Sam Swartz, Waukegan 

INDIANA 

Sam Winer, Elkhart 

Isidor Kahn, Evansville 

I. Weil, Fort Wayne 

William Feder, Gary 

Dr. I. J. Propper, Gary 

Joseph Steiner, Gary 

Samuel E. Rauh, Indianapolis 

Sol S. Kiser, Indianapolis 

Albert M. Rosenthal, Indianapolis 

A. L. Thalman, Kokomo 

M. Rosenthal, Lafayette 

Irving Jacobs, Ligonier 

Isaac Oppenheimer, Logansport 

Charles Indorf, Muncie 

Julius Falk, Peru 

Morris Greenberg, Shelbyville 

S. Weinstein, South Bend 

Leopold Joseph, Terre Haute 

Ben Blumberg, Terre Haute 

Max Blumberg, Terre Haute 

Abe N. Levin, Terre Haute 

I. B. Kuhn, Vincennes 

Isaac Beitman, Wabash 

IOWA 

H. Smulekoff, Cedar Rapids 
O. Hochman, Council Bluffs 
E. P. Adler, Davenport 
Jacob L. Sheuerman, Des Moines 



Louis Arkoff, Fort Dodge 
A. Abramsohn, Iowa City 
A. Oppenheimer, Oskaloosa 
J. B. Sax, Ottumwa 
Dave Davidson, Sioux City 
Edward Baron, Sioux City 
A. L. Galinsky, Sioux City 
H. Levine, Sioux City 

KENTUCKY 

Sam Pushin, Bowling Green 
M. Berman, Covington 
David P. Davis, Frankfort 
Gus Starr, Henderson 
Simon Wolf, Lexington 
Col. Fred Levy, Louisville 
Silas Rosenfeld, Owensboro 
Louis Rubel, Paducah 
E. R. Rothschild, Shelbyville 

A. A. Greenbaum, Versailles 

LOUISIANA 

Henry Cohen, Baton Rouge 
Charles Rosen, New Orleans 
Sidney L. Herold, Shreveport 

MAINE 

Hyman Chernowsky, Augusta 
Louis Kirstein, Bangor 

B. L. Berman, Lewiston 

MARYLAND 

Leon Gottlieb, Annapolis 
Julius Levy, Baltimore 
Simon Rosenbaum, Cumberland 
Leo Weinberg, Frederick 
Joseph Brenner, Hagerstown 

MASSACHUSETTS 

Louis E. Kirstein, Boston 

A. C. Ratchesky, Boston 

David A. Lourie, Chelsea 

David L. Course, Fall River 

S. Starensier, Haverhill 

Lewis M. Potolski, Holyoke 

Harold M. Siskind, Lawrence 

Bennett Silverblatt, Lowell 

W. M. Pruss, Lynn 

Samuel Barnett, New Bedford 

Leo Zander, Pittsfield 

L. Berman, Quincy 

Nathan E. Goldstein, Springfield 

Judge Jacob Asher, Worcester 

MICHIGAN 

Frank Bachrach, Adrian 
J. Seaman, Battle Creek 
H. S. Atlas, Cadillac 
David A. Brown, Detroit 
Abe Levy, Detroit 
Herman Gessner, Escanaba 
Morris Rosenbloom, Flint 
Meyer S. May, Grand Rapids 



Hugo M. Field, Hancock 

M. Levine, Houghton 

Ben Seaman, Iron Mountain 

Harry Pious, Iron River 

M. A. Kahn, Ishpeming 

Meyer M. Levy, Jackson 

Selig Stern, Kalamazoo 

J. B. Simon, Lansing 

S. Rothschild, Manistee 

M. Winkleman, Manistique 

A. Fine, Marquette 

J. Simansky, Menominee 

I. J. Chudacoff, Munising 

Abe Levine, Negaunee 

Samuel Rosenthal, Petoskey 

Benj. Netzorg, Pontiac 

A. i). Philippe, Saginaw 

David Eliassoff, Sault Ste Marie 

A. Rosenthal, Traverse City 

MINNESOTA 

Max Gendler Albert Lea 

Max Minsker, Atwater 

George Hirsh, Austin 

S. Sapero, Chisholm 

H. Y. Joseph, Duluth 

I, Freimuth, Duluth 

Sam Ellis, Eveleth 

Charles Hallock, Hibbing 

L. Salet, Mankato 

Joseph H. Schanfeld, Minneapolis 

Louis R. Frankel, St. Paul 

James Neiger, St. Paul 

Isaac Summerfield, St. Paul 

J. R. Kolliner, Stillwater 

Julius Shanedling, Virginia 

MISSISSIPPI 

Jake Fink, Clarksdale 

Abe Rubel, Corinth 

Nathan Goldstein, Greensville 

Herman Katz, Hattiesburg 

Abe Feibelman, Jackson 

Leo N. Neugass, Magnolia 

Gabe Jacobson, Meridian 

M. Kline, Merigold 

A. H. Geisenberger, Natchez 

Joseph Hirsh, Vicksburg 

Ben Goldstein, Yazoo City 

MISSOURI 

Mrs. V. K. Fischlowitz 

Bonne Terre 
Louis Gratz, Carthage 
Joseph Wallbrunn, Chillicothe 
Charles Ettenson, Excelsior Spgs. 
L. M. Aronson, Hannibal 
Harry Bobier, Independence 
Joe Goldman, Jefferson City 
G. H. Newburger, Joplin 
A, C. Wurmser, Kansas City 
George Eisenstein, Moberly 



Harry Block, St. Joseph 
Simon Binswanger, St. Joseph 
Samuel Hassenbusch, St. Joseph 
Aaron Waldheim, St. Louis 
M. Chasnoff, Sedalia 

MONTANA 

Sig Goodfriend, Anaconda 
Max Friedwald, Billings 
Abe Wehl, Butte 
M. Handler, Great Falls 
Sol Hepner, Helena 
Irving L. Cohn, Missoula 

NEBRASKA 

A. Zolsky, Fremont 
Sam Hexter, Grand Island 
Morris Friend, Lincoln 
Jos. Sarbach, Nebraska City 
A. L. Alpirn, Omaha 
Wm. L. Holzman, Omaha 
Harry Lapidus, Omaha 
Henry Monsky, Omaha 
H. G. Fleishman, Omaha 
Harry A. Wolf, Omaha 

NEVADA 

A. Cohn, Carson City 
Samuel Rosenberg, Fallon 
E. Marks, Goldfield 
George Wood, Reno 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 

A. M. Stahl, Berlin 
M. Goldberg, Concord 
H. D. Freeman, Dover 
Edward M. Chase, Manchester 
Nathan Kamenske, Nashua 
Louis Shapiro, Portsmouth 

NEW MEXICO 

Ivan Grunsfeld, Albuquerque 
R. W. Isaacs, Clayton 
Louis C. Ilfeld, Las Vegas 

NEW JERSEY 

Felix Fuld, Newark 

Sigmund Eisner, Red Bank 

Abe J. Dimond, Newark 

Jacob Fabian, Paterson 

William Newcorn, Plainfield 

A. J. David, Elizabeth 

Dr. B. Pollock, Jersey City 

Benj. Natal, Camden 

David Holzner, Trenton 

Jos. B. Perskie, Atlantic City 

NEW YORK 

Nathan Hatch, Albany 
Samuel Hessberg, Albany 
David Wasserman, Amsterdam 



Lazarus Marshall, Auburn 
J. G. Joseph, Buffalo 
Benj. F. Levy, Elmira 
Samuel M. Meyers, Geneva 
Julius Jacobson, Glen Falls 
Samuel Rothschild, Gloversville 
Miss Frances M. Schermer, 

Herkimer 
Daniel Rothschild, Ithaca 
Jos, O. Harrison, Johnstown 
Sol N. Levy, Newburgh 
L. S. Silberberg, Niagara Falls 
Julius Frank, Ogdensburg 
David Friedman, Oneida 
Ely Elting, Poughkeepsie 
Joseph Michaels, Rochester 
Irving Goldsmith, Saratoga Spgs. 
Louis M. King, Schenectady 
Meyer Todtman, Seneca Falls 
Gates Thalheimer, Syracuse 
H. H. Butler, Troy 
C. S. Silverman, Watertown 
Harry Kitzinger, Yonkers 
Henry G. Alsberg, New York 
Dr. Boris D. Bogen, New York 
Morris Engelman, New York 
Howard S. Gans, New York 
Col. H. A. Guinzburg, New York 
Dr. Nathan Krass, New York 
Col. Herbert H. Lehman, N. Y. 
Louis Marshall, New York 
Henry Morganthau, New York 
James N. Rosenberg, New York 
Dr. Frank Rosenblatt, New York 
Henry H. Rosenfelt, New York 
Felix M. Warburg, New York 



NORTH DAKOTA 

Alex Rosen, Bismarck 

D. Naftalin, Fargo 

I. Papermaster, Grand Forks 

E. Rosen, Minot 



NORTH CAROLINA 

Abe Weil, Charlotte 
Lionel Weil, Goldsboro 
E. Sternberger, Greensboro 
J. M. Solky, Wilmington 
Aladdin Rosenbacher, 
Winston-Salem 



OHIO 

Bert A. Polsky, Akron 
I. C. Rudner, Alliance 
Morris Pickard, Ashtabula 
Max L. Herzberg, Bellaire 
Edwin I. Baer, Canton 
E. L. Bergman, Chillicothe 
Oscar Berman, Cincinnati 
Maurice Joseph, Cincinnati 



Dr. Julian Morgenstern, 

Cincinnati 
Charles Eisenman, Cleveland 
Paul L. Feiss, Cleveland 
Isaac Joseph, Cleveland 
Joseph Schonthal, Columbus 
Sol Levinson, Cuyahoga Falls 
Fred J. Ach, Dayton 
Harry Lehman, Dayton 
Dan Lieberthal, Defiance 
G. Bendheim, East Liverpool 
G. Rothbart, Lancaster 
N. L. Michael, Lima 
Henry Flesh, Piqua 
Samuel Horchow, Portsmouth 
Sam Kaplan, Sandusky 
Justin Altschul, Springfield 
S. J. Anathan, Steubenville 
Sigmund Saenger, Toledo 
Otto Kaufman, Youngstown 
L. Steinfels, Xenia 

OKLAHOMA 

Max Westheimer, Ardmore 

M. Collar, Guthrie 

Louis Berlowitz, McAlester 

Samuel Sondheimer, Muskogee 

A. D. Engelsman, Oklahoma City 

D. R. Travis, Tulsa 

OREGON 

Ben Selling, Portland 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Max Hess, AUentown 
Isaiah Scheeline, Altoona 
Max Salmon, Beaver Falls 
Wm. Horwitz, Butler 
Louis Shapiro, Clearfield 
Henry Klewans, Dubois 
Louis M. Ralph, Easton 
Philip Hanauer, Erie 
David Kaufman, Harrisburg 
Nelson A. Elsasser, Johnstown 
Samuel Weiss, Jr., Mauch Chunk 
Marcus Feuchtwanger, Newcastle 
Dr. Cyrus Adler, Philadelphia 
Jacob Billikopf, Philadelphia 
Albert M. Greenfield, Philadelphia 
Jules E. Mastbaum, Philadelphia 
Philip Newman, Punxsutawney 
Irvin F. Lehman, Pittsburgh 
Nathaniel Spear, Pittsburgh 

A. J. Sunstein, Pittsburgh 
Sig Schweriner, Reading 
Albert N. Kramer, Scranton 

B. Hirsch, Shamokin 
Alex Green, Sharon 

Elias I. Glassman, Warren 

J. K. Weitzenkorn, Wilkes-Barre 

Max Grumbacher, York 



RHODE ISLAND 

Max Levy, Newport 
Henry Friedman, Pawtucket 
Archibald Silverman, Providence 
Arthur I. Darman, Woonsocket 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

Montague Triest, Charleston 
August Kohn, Columbia 
Max Greenwald, Spartansburg 
Isaac C. Strauss, Sumter 



SOUTH DAKOTA 

Sam Calmenson, Aberdeen 
Louis Kuh, Sioux Falls 
Ben Katz, Yankton 



TENNESSEE 

Herman Hecht, Bristol 
Morris Friedman, Chattanooga 
Milton Baum, Humboldt 
Joseph L. Rosenbloom, Jackson 
Joseph Newburger, Memphis 
Lee J. Loventhal, Nashville 
Sol Cohn, Pulaski 
Louis Lipsky, Somerville 

TEXAS 

Joe Koen, Austin 

Leon R. Levy, Beaumont 

Joe Hirsch, Corpus Christi 

Louis Cerf, Corsicana 

J, K. Hexter, Dallas 

Simon Linz, Dallas 

G. Zork, El Paso 

Dr. George Fox, Fort Worth 

H. Kempner, Galveston 

Oscar Berman, San Antonio 

J, A. Hayman, Waco 

A. Zundelowitz, Wichita Falls 

UTAH 

Joseph Reinshriber, Ogden 
Daniel Alexander, Salt Lake City 

VERMONT 

N. Gisson, Brattleboro 
M. G. Rosenberg, Burlington 
Louis Gould, Montpelier 
Harold Cohen, St. Albans 



VIRGINIA 

Leopold Ruben, Alexandria 
J. A. Herman, Danville 

C. M. Guggenheimer, Lynchburg 
Moe Levy, Norfolk 

Edward Eigenbrun, Petersburg 
Isaac Fass, Portsmouth 
Jos. Spiegel, Roanoke 
Abe Walters, Staunton 
P. Feinberg, Winchester 
A. L. Straus, Richmond 

WASHINGTON 

Julius C. Lang, Seattle 
Ralph Schoenfeld, Seattle 
Samuel R. Stern, Spokane 
Louis H. Burnett, Tacoma 

WEST VIRGINIA 

H. O. Baer, Wheeling 

Isaac Lowenstein, Charleston 

W. A. Hersch, Parkersburg 

WISCONSIN 

Julius P. Frank, Appleton 

A. Roth, Beloit 

M. M. Horn, Eau Claire 
M. Shurman, Fond du Lac 

B. Brill, Green Bay 

M. A. Wertheimer, Kaukauna 
E. Epstein, Kenosha 
Joseph Goldstein, Kenosha 
Chas. H. Schweizer, La Crosse 
Alex Komhauser, Madison 
Harry Krom, Merrill 
Charles Friend, Milwaukee 
Nat Stone, Milwaukee 
Dave Kallen, Oshkosh 
David B. Eisendrath, Racine 
Anton Hoenigsberg, Sheboygem 
A. Locke, Sheboygan 
Herman Davis, Sheboygan 
S, Y. Josephs, Superior 
S. Winkelman, Wausaw 

WYOMING 
Jacob Sherman, Cheyenne 

CANADA 

Sir Mortimer Davis, Montreal 
Lyon Cohen, Montreal 

D. S. Friedman, Montreal 
Mark Workman, Montreal 
Leo Frankel, Toronto 




LOUIS MARSHALL 
Chairman, American Jewish Reliet Committee 

"Jews of America, the answer is to be given by you 
within the next few months. Shall we allow our 
fellow -Jews to sink back into chaos or shall we 
extend them the chance of becoming again the self- 
supporting, self-respecting, useful, productive Jews 
they formerly were ?" 




Session of Saturday 

September 24—2 P. M. 



Mr. Rosenwald: Ladies and Gentlemen — Permit me, in 
the name of the Chicago Committee, to extend to each of you 
the heartiest possible welcome to Chicago. 
No city could give you a more hearty wel- 
come than our own. You have all received 
letters outlining the nature of the business 
for which we are called together, and I shall 
not endeavor to speak at all along that line. 
Whatever discussion there is— and as I un- 
derstand from the members of the Commit- 
tee there are no preconceived plans — we are 
here for discussion and we want to follow 
whatever the delegates from the various 
cities think should be carried out. I am 
glad to say we ought to be proud as Jews to recognize the 
fact that we have delegates from most of the States, from 
California to Massachusetts, and from most of the States 
between the northern boundary and the Gulf. Whatever 
plans you gentlemen have will meet with the approval not 
only of the Chicago Committee, but of all those who have 
been working in the cause for which we are gathered. 

In order not to delay the business for which we are 
brought together, I would request General Abel Davis, if it 
meets with your views, to take the chair as temporary chair- 
man. General Davis. (Applause.) 

General Abel Davis : Suggestion of some name for tem- 
porary vice-chairman will be in order. Any suggestions? 

Mr. Felix Warburg: I suggest Mr. Howard S. Gans, who 
has been acquainted with the work for quite a while and has 
been most valuable to us in New York. 

Mr. Rosenwald: I second the nomination. 

Nomination put to the meeting and carried unanimously. 

Mr. Gans was declared by the Chairman to be unani- 
mously elected vice-chairman. 

General Abel Davis: Nominations for one or more secre- 
taries will be in order. 



11 



Mr. Warburg: I suggest that you have already Mr. James 
Becker, Mr. Rosenfelt and your Mr. Berger, who know the de- 
tails of the secretary's office to assist you in your arduous 
duties. 

Nominations seconded. 

Nominations were put to the meeting and carried unani- 
mously. 

The Chairman: May I suggest that as any member rises 
to address the conference or to make a suggestion that he 
give his name and State, so that we may get the record of all of 
those who participate in our deliberations. 

Gentlemen, what is your pleasure as to your temporary 
organization? 

Moved and seconded that the temporary organization be 
made permanent. 

Motion put and carried unanimously. 

The Chairman: So ordered and your conference is organ- 
ized. It seems fitting at this time that we should have an un- 
derstanding about the things which are 
proper for your consideration before this 
conference. The letter inviting participa- 
tion in this occasion set out rather fully 
what was in the minds of those who have 
asked you gentlemen to come. It may be 
well to restate them concretely. Every com- 
munity throughout the United States which 
has in one way or another participated in 
the efforts of the Joint Distribution Com- 
mittee and the American Jewish Relief Com- 
mittee has been asked to send one or more 
delegates to this conference for the following purposes: To 
ascertain from those who have been in the field the condi- 
tions as they now exist in Europe and particularly in those 
regions which have not as yet overcome the disastrous effect 
of the world war. To ascertain what are the future plans 
of the American Jewish Relief Committee and of the Joint 
Distribution Committee, and to receive suggestions from those 
who are present as to the methods of collecting the funds, if 
we should determine that such a step is advisable, and the 
method of application of those funds. We shall also consider 
such other matters as you may find to be germain to the 
specific matters just mentioned. Does that meet with the 
view of the delegates present? Does that statement represent 
your views? Is there any intention to broaden the matters 
for the discussion, or is there any intention to put any limita- 
tion on them? If not, it will be considered to be the purpose 
of the conference to limit the discussion to the object and 
matters mentioned. What is your pleasure regarding the pro- 
cedure? 

12 




Your Chair suggests that in order that we may arrive at 
proper conclusions that a basis be laid for our deliberations. 
I do not know of a better basis than a summary of the things 
which have been done in the past. I may say that it is not 
intended to make any speeches; it is not intended to have 
anyone tell us anything else except what he knows, and I 
want the delegates to know that we have not asked anyone 
to come here prepared to make a speech, but we have taken it 
for granted that everyone has come here with a heart and 
soul which is responsive to the situation as we know it to 
exist in Europe, or as it may be pictured to us to exist there. 
The press is not represented, no publicity has been given to this 
meeting. Nothing is to be reported as coming from this 
meeting except as you may determine yourselves. 

We have come here to plan together, to put our heads 
together, our hearts with a single purpose of interest and 
service, with the hope and determination that we shall all get 
back of the proceedings of this conference, and put them into 
execution. 

It has occurred to the Chair at this time that it may be 
well to call Mr. Warburg to tell us, in his own way, the aims 
and purposes of the Joint Distribution Committee. 

Mr. Felix Warburg: (Applause.) Ladies and Gentlemen — 
I would like to suggest to the Chair that before we begin he 
should make a ruling that inasmuch as 
nearly everyone here will want to contribute 
to the deliberations, the first speaker be 
limited in time to not more than ten minutes. 

The Chairman: The Chair suggests that 
if there is anything to be done in that mat- 
ter that we defer it until after the first 
speaker has spoken. 

Mr. Warburg: We have received from 
time to time printed minutes and reported 
speeches of the people who have returned, and 
I take it for granted, knowing a good many of 
the delegates here, that I do not have to begin with the alpha 
of the alphabet. I take it for granted that you know what has 
happened since the armistice. I take it that you know that in 
this room there must be at least ten people who have person- 
ally been as your servants in Poland, or in the different parts 
where our operations have taken place. I hope that you will 
get from them directly the impressions that they have had, and 
such details as I know you will not be able to get in the brief 
outline given you. 

I take it that you know that the Polish Unit has worked 
during all these years and has finished to a great extent the 
work of the Relief Committee, this last year, and I shall 

13 






address myself to the last year, because that will bring you 
the picture more up to date, and has represented the effort to 
go from war footing to a peace footing. We have tried to cut 
out relief based on almsgiving, the giving of clothing to the 
population, and have tried to reawaken the population to 
become once more as they have been before the war, self- 
respecting and self-supporting. The efforts made in that re- 
gard have been exceedingly successful. 

The two fields of operation where the largest amounts 
of money had to be spent have been Vienna, as the center 
of the refugee assemblage, and Poland, the country overrun 
so many times by the Huns. The conference that Mr. Becker 
very fortunately called in Vienna had the result of laying 
down a certain policy in the different countries. They pro- 
posed and we adopted a certain maximum of how much those 
countries should be permitted to spend for relief, for clothing, 
for general work and for child care. You saw those tabula- 
tions a year ago. I am glad to say that they have lived up to 
those promises. What to us at that time seemed very doubt- 
ful, namely, that it should be possible to reduce Poland so 
quickly and so successfully to self-administration, has been 
done. It was due to a great extent to the tact of Dr. Bogen 
and his friends who were with him over there, that this has 
been achieved, and I am glad to see him back with us once 
more and I know that there is no better servant and no wiser 
than Dr. Bogen. Without him, most of our operations would 
have been impossible. (Applause.) 

I come back to the conference over which Mr. Becker 
presided. It was decided there that the Viennese activities, 
all good, but very expensive, should be reduced to normal. 
That was difficult because the Viennese people at that time 
were very much demoralized. The Jews of Vienna, whose 
crowns and hellers had gone down to nothing, felt so much 
dejected, so helpless and hopeless, that I, for one, doubted 
whether any change could have taken place in so short a time. 
I do not think it would have taken place up to that day if Mr. 
Gans and Dr. Bogen and a number of his friends had not gone 
to Vienna last summer, and if we had not taken the commu- 
nity in Vienna into our confidence and had not told them that 
the time has come when Vienna has to be treated like other 
countries. It has to stand on its own feet. It was a shock to 
them, and I am afraid that the first session, which my brave 
friends had before we arrived, must have been very disagree- 
able and a very painful one to both sides, because the Viennese 
people were not prepared to assume their own duties and we 
could not be prepared to continue. 

After a number of conferences they had changed, and 
we succeeded in making them assume their duties, we giving 

14 



them only a relatively small payment to start them off; but 
the work, the medical work, the alms-giving work, and some 
of the child-care work, has been handed back to the Viennese 
community, and we hope that they will be able to carry it. 
They may be able to carry it. 

So the Eastern picture is a more favorable one. The 
Polish picture is a more favorable one. The Palestinian pic- 
ture is not any more favorable than it was a year ago. Things 
are about as they were a year ago. We have reduced our 
allowances there, too, as we feel that the institutions have 
been brought up to a better standard; that with the influx of 
immigrants at the slow rate at which the Zionists permit them 
to come in, they should be able — to use the boy's own expres- 
sion — to paddle their own canoe with the water they have. 
(Laughter.) 

We come to Roumania, where the conditions have im- 
proved decidedly. The poverty of Roumania does not cause 
any great difficulty at this moment, but you will hear that in 
that country, as in every other country I have mentioned, the 
activities of Col. Lehman, who will speak to you of recon- 
struction, will need a good deal of earnest attention. 

The method of doling out charity has stopped for the 
moment, but we must not feel that because of that our several 
activities should be diminished. The reconstruction is a most 
important part. The medical work is a most important part, 
and you will be informed on that from other sources. I only 
in general remarks want to say that unless we succeed in 
putting the Jews in Eastern Europe on a basis where they 
become self-supporting and where they become human beings 
as far as sanitary conditions are concerned, anti-Semitism will 
not die out. I was over there a few months ago and we still 
heard the Eastern Jew described as the "lousy Jew," the "filthy 
Jew," etc. We must see to it that the Jew is not so considered, 
because it provides an excuse for special restrictions against 
their moving about, and it is most important that our medical 
program be supported by a large amount, as it cannot be had 
over there. You will hear about that, too. I only give you a 
general outline. 

You will also hear about the child-care, and there I feel 
that whatever our future policy may be, whether we will have 
more drives or no more drives, whether we will have more 
appeals to Jewry or not, the Jewish orphans will need your at- 
tention for the next four or five years. There is no way of 
avoiding that responsibility. The financial adoption of Jewish 
children is a thing which ought to occupy the hearts and the 
minds of the Americans, especially of the women in the United 
States. I say that with a good deal of conviction. I have seen a 
good many cases where the fatherless children of France have 

15 



been adopted by Jewish women or other women. Their interest 
remains alive through the Httle letters that these ladies receive 
from these children whom they have never seen, and whom 
they probably never will see. But if it means something in their 
lives they connect them with the country where these children 
have to live. They remain a chain which is stronger than the 
cold check which is sent by the husband to the treasurer of the 
committee. I do hope that as you consider the combined plans a 
little later on you will not forget the warmth of this appeal, 
which to my experience is a decidedly great one. 

I do not want to go into any further details at this mo- 
ment. I shall be delighted to answer any question in the 
discussion which no doubt will ensue. I want to express, on 
my own behalf — I have no right to speak for the Jews of New 
York, or for any other Jews — that it is a privilege to be in 
Chicago in connection with this enterprise. Chicago, through 
its leader, has been foremost in war relief. Mr. Rosenwald has 
always marched at the head of the line. 

Unfortunately for us, perhaps unfortunately for you, the 
Jewish people of New York had to carry the burden of the 
executive work — not on account of any other reason than that 
they were situated at that place where these things had to 
be attended to. We shall be glad to give you all the informa- 
tion you desire, and whatever mandate you give us will be 
executed in the best possible way. 

Of one thing I want to give you assurance — that we have 
been exceedingly fortunate in finding people who would be 
unselfish and would give their time unselfishly to this work. 
The Chair has already spoken of one individual's work, of the 
work Dr. Goldman has done at such sacrifice — his own practice 
in New York, and a sacrifice of even his own health. We have 
had the privilege of calling on Mr. Howard Gans, who has done 
this work to the same extent, but, fortunately, his health is per- 
fect. He administers the affairs of that committee through daily 
hard work, following in the footsteps of Colonel Lehman, and we 
have no idea what these details mean. We criticize — I criti- 
cize myself — and the work needs the right kind of criticism. 
We want criticism when it is just. Do not hesitate to tell us 
anything that is on your mind, because we are all only human ; 
but we want you to know the people who do the work, and 
how unselfish they have been. 

You must know a delegate at this conference who has 
done and who is going to do a most extraordinary piece of 
work — James N. Rosenberg, a lawyer of high standing in 
New York, giving up all his practice for us, so as to help us 
abroad, following in the footsteps of Dr. Goldman and Mr. 
Howard Gans. He will act as Chairman of the European 
Council with all the other men in that Council. I want you 

16 



to know this morning we have four countries which are the 
most important ones, divided up in such a way that we have 
one extra man in each country. These people act together as 
a Council and check each other up. There is no one man who 
can work in such terrible circumstances as you find there, such 
suffering and distress, without becoming depressed. You see 
things only through the glasses of that horrible problem we are 
trying to solve and cannot solve. Therefore it is important 
that not one person, but a body of persons, not specializing 
independently, but that will counsel together — men of the 
type of Dr. Goldman, Mr. Waldman, known to a good many 
of you through his work in New York and Boston, Dr. 
Peyser, who worked so hard for you as to undermine his 
health to such a degree he is now trying to heal his lungs, 
which are in a wretched condition. These are the men in 
charge of the medical work, and reconstruction work is in the 
hands of Mr. Landesco. Mr. Landesco is a business man. 
Mr. Lehman will probably give you more about the scope of 
his work. I only want to assure you as far as the personnel is 
concerned there is nothing to worry about. It is difficult for 
the rank and file to stay under fire, to stay under disease, and 
under the circumstances which our personnel continually suffer 
because the conditions are so bad, and the lure of the people at 
home and the influence of the United States is very strong. 

I will now cease for the time being, but we will be only 
too glad to answer any questions that may be asked. 

The Chairman: I beg leave to read two messages, one 
from Mr. Paul Baerwald: 



New York, September 19, 1921. 

James H. Becker, Esq., 

Chicago, 111. 

My Dear Mr. Becker: 

I want to express to you again my sincere regret at not 
being able to be present at the Conference. I would have wel- 
comed this opportunity to make the acquaintance of so many 
of the men through whose imtiring efEorts the money has 
been collected which has passed through the office of the 
Treasurer these last few years. 

Your Conference is bound to be a success because all the 
participants want to make it a success and you will be able, 
I am sure, to arrange for a larger degree of co-operation and 
joint effort than ever before. And from a general point of 
view I am sure you have just managed to select the best 
moment for the staging of this important gathering. 

Sincerely yours, 

PAUL BAERWALD. 



17 



The other is a telegram from Mortimer L. Schiff, who has 
been asked to come to this conference. 

New York, September 21, 1921. 
Julius Rosenwald, 

Chicago. 
Not only because of my father's great interest in all 
phases of Jewish War Relief but also because of my own 
recognition of the continuing need I would very much like to 
do as you desire and be present at the Conference of the 
American Jewish Relief Committee to be held in Chicago on 
September 24th and 25th, but it is to my great regret impossible 
for me to do so. September 25th is the first anniversary of my 
father's death and I want to spend this day with my mother 
and with her attend a memorial service which is to be held 
here. I am sure that you and your associates will understand 
that under these circumstances I cannot absent myself from this 
neighborhood on that day. 

MORTIMER L. SCHIFF. 

The Chairman: Ladies and Gentlemen — Mr. Schiff's an- 
swer to the invitation suggests the anniversary of the death 
of his father, who has been one of the main supporters and 
enthusiastic in his allegiance to our work. If the conference 
desires to take any action on that they can. What is the 
pleasure of the conference? 

Mr. Rosenwald: May I ask, or suggest, Mr. Chairman, 
that a committee be appointed to formulate resolutions upon 
this occasion, which brings to our memory the most outstand- 
ing Jew that America has ever produced. Mr. Schiff was 
not alone a philanthropist, not alone a leading Jew, a valiant, 
outspoken Jewish representative in other things, but he was 
a type of American citizen of which every American, Jew or 
non-Jew, should be proud. And, in addition, Mr. Chariman, I 
would like to ask that this group, for a brief moment, rise in 
silence to the memory of our dear departed Mr. Schiff, Chair- 
man of the Joint Distribution Committee. 

The Chairman: Mr. Rosenwald moves that the Chair be 
authorized to appoint a committee to pass suitable resolutions 
in honor of the memory on the first anniversary of the death 
of Mr. Schiff. All those in favor of the motion signify the 
same by rising and remaining silent. 

(Entire convention rises and remains silent, followed by 
Kadish in Hebrew by Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch.) 

The Chairman : The Chair will announce the composition 
of the committee after receiving suggestions, if any member of 
the conference desires to make them. 

May the Chair suggest that we follow up the general sur- 
vey of the situation as given to us by Mr. Warburg by listen- 
ing to statements from such of the gentlemen who have been 
in the field and who have perfected themselves in some par- 
ticular phase of the work? 

18 




The gentleman upon whom I am going to call, Mr, How- 
ard Gans, is one of those who has given great service to the 
cause. Mr. Gans knows about this thing known as Sanitation, 
and all the questions related thereto in devastated Europe. 
We shall be delighted to hear from him. 

Mr. Howard Gans: I want to thank the conference for 
the honor conferred upon me, and for selecting me as one of the 
speakers. I want to deprecate the things 
that have been said about my services, be- 
cause I don't think the little I have done 
merits praises such as you have given. 

The subject I have been announced to 
speak upon I know only from the adminis- 
trative side. That phase of our work which is 
the greatest and makes the strongest humani- 
tarian appeal to service, is the attempt to pro- 
vide for so many of the little children of 
Poland, who have been orphaned from war 
causes, with the bare necessities of life as far 
as it is possible for us to give them. The best we can do in 
that direction is little enough. Whatever we can do in bring- 
ing a small percentage of the rising generation to some training 
in the decencies of life is a contribution probably greater than 
we can imagine in the rehabilitation of Eastern Europe. 

Next to that comes what we call our reconstruction work, 
to enable our co-religionists of Eastern Europe to help them- 
selves, the attempt to furnish them with the means of helping 
themselves. Colonel Lehman will tell you what the plans are 
as to that phase of our work which deals with the refugees. 
Now these, to my mind, are the activities here that should and 
will make an appeal in a public attempt to gather funds. But 
what we are trying to do through our medical program is fund- 
amentally connected with these other activities. Unless we 
carry on this work other activities will be nullified. 

Picture to yourself the devastated areas, through which 
armies have fought and refought, leaving ruins and destroy- 
ing communities. You must try to picture a country where 
there is suffering almost beyond description, a country in 
which facilities for sanitation are few — comparatively few. 
The bath houses existing before the war have in large meas- 
ure been swept away. Now, unless something is done to rem- 
edy that condition^, unless bath houses, which are the sole pre- 
ventative for the spread of typhus and other diseases, are sup- 
plied at least in small measure, unless something is done to 
furnish water supply in places where there is none, where they 
haven't any way of f?;;etting it, unless there is some attempt to 
stop these various diseases which, if not taken as they begin 
to spread, will sweep through and take at least half of the 
population, those in authority cannot deal with the situation. 

1Q 



I£ not checked, these diseases are bound not only to increase 
in that vicinity, but because of the floating character of the 
population you are going to have a condition in the commu- 
nity where whatever else you do your efforts will be fruitless. 

What use is there to bring up children if they are going to 
die of typhus? What use is there to spend money for rehabili- 
tation, of providing workmen with tools to set up their business, 
if the tools which you provide are to be useless because the 
little shopkeeper is carried away by typhus or cholera? What 
use is there to deal with people in concentration camps, fur- 
nishing them with food and clothing, unless we are also doing 
something to prevent the typhus germs from spreading through- 
out the camp and devastating all those concentrated? 

With a picture of this sort before us about two years ago 
we made a tentative proposition for an immediate campaign. 
We have now a survey of the field, and we now have in the 
field about fourteen doctors, who have been added to the nine 
separate districts into which Poland is divided, covering ap- 
proximately 3,300,000 people. We organized in this district 
and are in process or organizing in the other districts, with 
the aid of the local communities, a movement to bring about 
the sanitation and the co-ordination and creation of important 
organizations to deal with sanitation and diseases and the 
emergencies that we have attempted to describe. 

Work is being done in an effort not of bringing something 
superimposed, but being done in the effort of arousing a com- 
munity to her own need, calling upon the community to help 
solve the sanitary and medical problems by their own efforts, 
through their own practice and with their own contributions. 
The communities in the main so far have responded with the 
needed stimulus. 

The problem of instituting such a movement seemed too 
great. What we think we can do there is to give them a 
little help. Of course at first we will start by giving to the 
management a portion of the funds devoted to that purpose, 
but the maintenance of every institution is undertaken at the 
start by the communities themselves. They organize a local 
committee which is called upon to see that the work is 
carried on. 

That is a picture of the work in brief, and this in brief 
is the reason why we have undertaken it. I, as one of those 
charged with administering relief in Europe, would hope that 
a sum will be raised through this campaign which will enable 
us to continue and increase the appropriation made for this 
purpose until the communities in Europe are able to carry on, 
as they will carry on, this sort of work on their own account. 

The Chairman: The Chairman of the Reconstruction 
Committee is one of the members of the conference, and 

20 



I would like to present to you Colonel Lehmann, who will 
speak to you on the work o£ Reconstruction. Colonel Leh- 
man. 

Col. Lehman: Ladies and Gentlemen — There came a time 
in the administration of relief committees and of those who 
were charged with the responsibility of 
handling the work abroad when the kind of r -i 

co-operative relief work we had been doing "' 

for a number of years, both during and sub- 
sequent to the war, had come to an end, ex- -f. 
cept for some sporadic efforts. Steps were ' ' ] 
taken to improve the transition period be- ' 
tween that and the time when the people 
should again be able to care for themselves 
by their own efforts — become self-supporting. || ^- WM 
So that as far back as eighteen months ago ^ — — ^ 
Dr. Bogen and Mr. Becker, our other rep- 
resentative abroad, did put into effect in a small way recon- 
struction, through the granting of loans to small merchants, 
artisans, farmers and workers. This was done largely in 
Poland and in Roumania. About a year ago they prepared 
to take steps to really bring about a situation where these 
people they had helped for a number of years could be made 
as self-supporting and self-sustaining as possible. Therefore 
there was given to the Relief Committee a fund of five million 
dollars, which should be used over a period of time to bring 
about the desired effect. There was also set up within the 
committee a sub-committee to administer these funds and re- 
port to the larger committee yearly. 

The term Reconstruction Committee is a misnomer, be- 
cause it is not that. Within a reasonable time I think we 
shall ask that the name be changed to Rehabilitation, because, 
after all, that is what the work means. The Reconstruction 
Committee, because of course we have to have a head, has 
appointed as its Chief Director of Reconstruction or Rehabili- 
tation abroad, Mr. Alexander Landesco. He has surrounded 
himself with an able group of devoted, earnest men who visit 
various parts of Europe where our activities have been 
initiated. 

The difficulties which the Reconstruction Committee has 
met are due largely to the following: We have to try as far 
as possible to combine with good business judgment the neces- 
sities of the Jewish situation. In other words, it is easy 
enough to set up in various parts of Europe a purely business 
machine; it would be easy enough to set up a machine simply 
to give charity. We do not call it charity. We want to make 
our work as far as possible follow the lines of good business 
sense, to make the people realize when they make a loan from 
us, or receive other help, it is on business lines — permanent 

21 



help and not merely for the moment. We should not allow 
that situation to arise— we must be sure when we set up 
credit or give other aid we are doing it for people who really 
need it, who without it could not help themselves. 

These are the situations we must meet — these are the 
problems that are being now solved. We have circulated 
through the field in a considerable portion of Europe. We 
know there are endless activities to be undertaken before us 
in making a community self supporting or at least fairly so. 
We know also that our limited means—five million dollars 
spread out all over the world— even in Palestine, is a small 
sum. It does not permit us to do one-tenth of the work. We 
know we have to limit our activities to definite channels. 
Therefore we have for the time being set for ourselves the 
limitation of setting up in the territories where we have been 
functioning, using one-half of it for the granting of credit 
to small merchants, artisans and tradesmen. We believe that 
that is the first step that must be taken in the process of 
rehabilitation. We believe in that way we shall reach a 
larger number of people and do a greater work than we could 
by spreading out and dividing our efforts in too large a field. 
We have gone so far under the leadership of Mr. Landesco 
abroad and have made a definite start over in Roumania. 
Roumania suffered greatly from the war, but seems to be 
getting back on its feet somewhat more rapidly than other 
countries, owing to its situation. We therefore thought there 
was a chance to do our work without hindrance, and with a 
fair amount of safety, and with a reasonable assurance that 
we were going to reach people who needed it. It was put 
into effect in the following way: Our committee appropri- 
ated three hundred thousand dollars, two hundred thousand 
of which was paid out in the form of loans made by co-opera- 
tive societies, and one hundred thousand was paid for loans 
for reconstruction — reconstruction of houses; in other words, 
mortgage loans. The mortgage loans are handled through an 
organization known as European Executive Council, which rep- 
resents us, makes the loans to these people, taking security and 
endorsements, and such degree of care has been exercised, 
always taking into account the actual essential needs of the 
people. In other words, we give careful consideration to 
those suffering, and our main object is to give aid to the 
suffering, always to those people who deserve help and for 
whom we have confidence rehabilitation through our efforts 
will succeed. 

As to the other one hundred thousand, it is handled 
through co-operative societies set up in various parts of 
Roumania — old Roumania, that part devastated through the 
war. Each co-operative society makes itself responsible for 
its debts and also responsible to its fellows for loans that are 
made, as I said, to artisans, tradesmen, farmers, banks, etc., 

22 



with the understanding that the two organizations to which 
we are allied may also charge a rate only sufficient to cover 
its actual expense. In other words, there must be no profit to 
this committee or to anyone through forfeiture. I think it is 
a significant thing to be able to report that last Monday we 
received a check of about $1,100 representing interest paid by 
one of these Roumanian organizations, through an agent of the 
committee, on its loan. 

In addition to this three hundred thousand which we 
have given to Roumania, we have placed at their disposal also 
a considerable number of tools to be sold to artisans and 
workmen, on easy terms, payment to be spread over a long 
term. The people are taking advantage of this, and the pay- 
ments and the handling of all this part of the work is also 
done by one of the Roumanian societies, and we have in thia 
case, too, received repayment on the advance made against the 
tools. They set up a fund of $75,000, or about $80,000, for 
reconstruction work in Lithuania, which will be done on not 
exactly the same lines as that in Roumania, but more or less 
similar. They have set up a fund of $200,000, of which only 
$100,000 has thus far been expended, in the purchase of tools 
which will be distributed through the "Ort," an organization 
which existed before the war for the encouragement of agri- 
culture. 

The tools to which I refer in Roumania were substantially 
artisans' and household tools, such as sewing machines, car- 
penters' tools, etc., tools which would make either the woman 
in the house self-supporting or aid in the support of her 
family, or would make the artisan in his regular line of work 
more able to become self supporting. The tools which we are 
distributing through the "Ort" are to a great extent agricul- 
tural tools and tools which will be used in the development 
of agriculture in Poland, and we hope also at a somewhat 
later date in Russia and also in Roumania. 

In connection with this expenditure we have made an 
arrangement with the "Ort," which is an organization of con- 
siderable responsibility, by which they would hold themselves 
definitely responsible for a repayment of between 60 and 70 
per cent, of the value of these tools. In other words, we 
risked the 40 per cent, and we received an obligation from the 
"Ort" for the 60 per cent., and I hope that we will receive 
back from the actual purchasers of the tools a substantial part 
of that 40 per cent., although how much of it is, of course, 
quite impossible to tell now. 

In Palestine our problem has been a serious one. We 
have wanted to commence work there, but we have not felt 
that the time was ripe to do anything on any substantial scale. 

I need not refer you gentlemen to the political situation 
in regard to Palestine, which of course is bound to be a ham- 

23 



pering and a hindrance to any reconstruction work in Pales- 
tine. Furthermore, we have felt that as far as possible we 
must adopt the plan that we could not afford to undertake the 
responsibility either of administration or of the administrative 
expenses — that if we did it would simply mean setting up an 
enormous organization. As we have found credit institutions 
run by the Joint Distribution Committee or any philanthropic 
or semi-philanthropic society, we were bound not to be self- 
supporting. So that if the administrative charges of these 
institutions were paid out of our funds it would only be a 
question of time before our funds would be depleted, not only 
through the losses on loans to those people who deserve help, 
but through administrative expenses. We have, therefore, 
adopted a general rule that we are not going to run the joint 
organizations without the help of the people in the country, 
that the people in the country must run themselves to the 
extent of putting up a certain proportion of the capital out of 
which the administrative expenses could be paid. We have 
done that wherever we could so far, but we have not found it 
practicable in Palestine. In Palestine, of course, there are no 
independent credit organizations except the Anglo-Palestine 
Bank, and in that institution they neither wanted to handle a 
job of that sort nor would we have been willing to let them 
do it. So thus far we have not set up any credit institution 
in Palestine. We have had in the last three or four years 
what is known as the Kupeth-Milveh organization, a loan as- 
sociation in which a very nominal interest is charged. It 
functions in Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa, and one or two other 
Palestinian cities. That fund is built up largely through 
loans which we made before we began the reconstructive 
committee. It was made by people in Palestine as a means of 
allowing the people to retain their self-respect after the very 
urgent situation disappeared. We checked up and we found 
that in some places the people could repay and in other cases 
the people voluntarily offered to pay over a term of years, so 
we took on the Kupeth-Milveh, from which we have realized 
some small sums of money. We are going to continue the 
Kupeth-Milveh organization until we can set up in Palestine 
a more permanent credit organization. I wish to say that we 
will be in conference very shortly with a British economic 
board in Palestine known as the Zionist Economic Organiza- 
tion, and we will discuss with them, as some of you gentlemen 
know was discussed last winter with this British economic 
organization, the question of co-operation in the setting up 
of a credit institution run on a like basis in Palestine. 

That brings me to the last and most important piece of 
our work, and that is the program which we have initiated in 
Poland. With the exception of Russia, which, of course, has 
not been open to us up to the present time, the most important 
part of our work must necessarily be in Poland and through 

24 



Mr. Landesco and his assistants, as well as our own, we have 
been giving it the closest attention. 

We have set aside in Poland as an experimental amount 
the sum of one million dollars for the setting up of a compre- 
hensive credit institution within Poland. There have been in 
Poland for a reasonably long time various co-operatives — co- 
operative loan banks, co-operative business organizations. 
What we have done is the following: We have divided Poland 
into seven separate districts. In each one of these districts 
we have selected, or in a few cases actually will set up, a 
certain number of small co-operative banks and a small num- 
ber of consumers, producers and artisans, all co-operatives. 
All of these within a district will head up into a union of co- 
operatives. Iri other words, if we have ten co-operative banks 
within the district, they will head up into a district of one 
co-operative, so that there will be in all seven co-operatives. 
We will set up after the next sets are completed, in Warsaw, 
a reconstruction corporation of Poland, into which this federa- 
tion of co-operatives will head. We will place our money in 
the hands of the reconstruction corporation of Poland under 
safeguards which will be laid down by ourselves for safety 
and co-operation. We will say to the small bank in the prov- 
inces: "You start with a million marks capital." We have 
in all cases insisted that not less than ten to twenty per cent, 
of the money which we provide must be met by subscriptions 
in Poland. We will say to them: "You provide a million 
marks as the working capital of your bank. This capital is to 
be used, first, for the making of loans by yourself and to cover 
administrative expenses. After you have lent this million 
marks you can come to the reconstruction organization at 
Warsaw through the federation of co-operatives, which is the 
intermediate agency, and rediscount these loans so that there 
will continuously be a degree of working capital which these 
banks will have." 

We will lay down, and have already laid down, many of 
the rules under which this can be done. We are limiting, of 
course, our rate of rediscount — I mean our progression of re- 
discount — because there is a limit to which we can go, but we 
believe that by placing the incentive of administration to 
cover the administrative charges, we are going to make the 
people careful in their loans. We are going to make them 
consider the benefit of scrutinizing the character of their loans 
and insisting that they make loans to those people who really 
will be helped by this work. I say we will scrutinize it — 
whether we will scrutinize it in all its details is a question. 
But we will make every effort. We will limit the amount of 
interest which they can charge to a man and which will just 
cover the administrative expenses of the various banks or 
organizations which are handling them. 

25 



The thing is an experiment, but I have every reason to 
believe that it is going to work out successfully. I have every 
reason to believe that this is a means by which we really can 
reach in the way of reconstructive activities those people who 
are particularly in need of our efforts. 

We have already received most encouraging reports as to 
the enthusiasm with which the plan has been received, as to 
the care and devotion with which all the details have worked 
out and the early stages put into teffect. I have every confi- 
dence that while unquestionably part of the money which we 
are in this way investing will be lost, that on the whole a 
dollar spent in this way is going further as a permanent help 
to the relief of the situation than could a dollar spent in any 
other way possibly do. I want to emphasize the fact that 
while I have talked a great deal of the business aspect, em- 
phasizing the fact that we are trying to run this along busi- 
ness-like lines, and we will not undo any work unless we have 
to (for we think there is a chance of running it along business- 
like lines and running it with safety), yet I do not want you 
to go away thinking that we are not going to lose over a term 
of years a considerable portion of the funds we are putting in. 
We are. But we are going to lose it solely, and I believe we 
are going to lose it after, we have done a tremendous amount 
of good, 

I believe that with the exception of child work, which to 
me is closer than any portion of our work, there is noth- 
ing which we possibly can do actually and permanently to 
relieve the situation and help the peoples of Europe to help 
themselves to the same extent as this job of reconstruction 
work. (Applause.) 

Mr. Adolf Kraus: I would like to ask the speaker a ques- 
tion. I understood you to say that these banks that will loan 
out the money will charge no more in the way of interest 
initially than if we had administered the cost of carrying on 
these banks. Did I understand you correctly. 

Col. Lehman: Yes. 

Mr. Kraus : If the initial cost will be ten per cent, will 
those people be charged ten per cent.? 

Col. Lehman : I have said that we will not allow them to 
charge an amount more than will be necessary. 

Mr. Kraus: You are not answering my question. 

Col. Lehman : Yes, I v/ill answer it. I should have said 
that we will not allow them to charge more. I did not mean 
to give the impression that v/e will not allow them to charge 
as much as may be necessary to carry on with the administra- 
tive charges. In other words, I believe that about ten per cent, 
will be necessary to carry on the cost of administration. 

Mr. Kraus : I protest against charging these people ten per 
cent, interest. 

26 



Col. Lehman: I want to emphasize the fact that the 
reconstruction committee, the Joint Distribution Committee, 
will under no circumstances charge ten per cent, or any sub- 
stantial proportion of that. The reconstruction committee in 
Roumania is charging to the federation of co-opsratives 
making these loans two and one-half per cent. You can't 
expect these people to whom we are giving the money to run 
this thing for us and to assume all the cost of administration. 
They are willing to take some chance of loss on the adminis- 
tration, but where their cost is, say, six per cent, to eight per 
cent, for administration, it would be hard to expect them to 
carry that themselves. Now, in Poland I should say that the 
cost of administration would be that, while the Joint Distribu- 
tion Committee is only going to receive three or four per cent. 

Mr. Kraus: What is the difference to the man who pays 
the interest whether the bank in Roumania receives the 
interest, or in Poland, or the Joint Distribution Committee? 
My opinion is that if any interest is charged it should be 
limited, so it should not cost the person who pays it more 
than five per cent. If we are going to do charity at the rate 
of ten per cent, interest and over, let us stop. It is no charitv 
at all. ^ 

Col. Lehman: I don't think you can change the economic 
laws by the use of a million dollars. You can change them 
to a certain extent. I think Dr. Bogen will bear me out 
when I say the interest rate in Poland is much higher than 
that. 

Dr. Bogen: In Poland the moneys that will be received 
from America will be used in reconstruction work and to 
help the Polish Jew so that he will be able to help himself. 
The usual rate of interest in Poland is one per cent, a week, 
or 52 per cent, a year. The Jews in Poland do not want to 
borrow money without interest. When I told them that we 
were going to give them relief they told me that they wanted 
to send you an appreciation for all that was done in the mat- 
ter of relief. 

The Chairman: Subject to the approval of the confer- 
ence the Chair would suggest that such questions as may 
arise in the minds of the members of the conference be jotted 
down and the Chair proposes to set aside all the time that we 
need for answering questions. 

Mr. Marshall: May I suggest to the Chariman that it 
might be well to have these questions put while the gentle- 
man making the report is on the floor, because it might save 
considerable time, and the whole matter might come up be- 
fore us under such conditions that all of the background is 
still clear in our memory. If I might make a comparison, 
these gentlemen are a part of the cabinet and they are making 
their report to the parliament which is here assembled, and of 
course interpolations are proper at any time. I think it would 

27 



save a good deal of time and it would serve to clarify things 
if we could have the discussions in that way. 

The Chairman: Is the view expressed by Mr. Marshall 
concurred in by the organization? 

(Cries of "Aye.") 

The Chairman: If so, questions are in order at this time. 

Mr. Savitsky: Mr. Chairman, I believe one point is to be 
taken into consideration, and that is the matter of exchange. 
The interest rates are very high in Poland, due to the exchange 
drop. Dr. Bogen stated, and he knows the situation not only in 
one district, but all throughout Europe, that an interest rate of 
52 per cent, is considered a banking rate, and I have seen in- 
stances where people have paid 3,000 per cent. — and what is ten 
per cent, in comparison with 3,000 per cent.? We have had this 
question up time and again, and it has been proved to my satis- 
faction that 12 per cent, can cover only the actual administra- 
tive cost of a loan society. 

The Chairman: The Chair wants to call the attention 
of the conference to the fact that Mr. Savitsky speaks from 
experience. He has spent a great deal of time in Poland. Any 
more questions? 

Mr. UUman: There is one question in my mind as to the 
reconstruction committee. There have been reports at various 
times over here that under no circumstances would it be 
possible to rehabilitate the Jews over there so that they could 
be placed under and remain under satisfactory conditions. I 
for one should like an expression from one who has been over 
there as to whether the condition of the Jews will be satisfac- 
tory after we have taken action as outlined. 

The Chairman: Dr. Bogen, would you like to answer that 
question? 

Dr. Bogen: The Jewish people in Poland will remain 
in Poland. The conditions in Poland are evoluting, but no 
one in the world can say what will happen. The conditions 
there today are such as no one can imagine, no one who has 
not been there can realize it. Conditions are terribly bad. 
We still have districts where it is hard to get food. We have 
districts where we have thousands of people on the streets. 
We have children begging. We have men and women dying 
with tuberculosis on the streets in Poland. And still the Jews 
in Poland say, "Thank God, the conditions are improving." 

Now you can imagine what it was two years ago, when 
thousands of children begged bread on the street. Thank God, 
the conditions are improving. The American Jews, through 
the help of the American relief administrations, are feeding 
today not less than 40,000 Jewish children every day. 
Whether we shall be able to continue to feed the children or 
whether this particular activity will be liquidated, it is hard 

28 



to say. The conditions are bad, but the Jews as citizens of 
Poland will remain in Poland. Some will come to America. 
Some will go to other countries, but in no way is it possible 
to think rationally that we can remove three and a half mil- 
lion Jews — and I really believe Mr. Gans has underestimated 
it, for, truly speaking, there are five million Jews in Poland. 
We cannot think of moving the Jews from Poland, nor can we 
plan for anything for the Jews in Poland outside of Poland. 
In this connection I want to say that it is not only true so far 
as the Jews in Poland are concerned, but it is true with regard 
to the orphans, because you cannot with that large number of 
children provide the same facilities that America had for 
moving the troops to Europe. You cannot move three million 
children, you cannot move thirty or forty thousand children. 
The maximum that you will be able to take out of Poland will 
not affect the Jewish population in Poland. The Jewish prob- 
lem is very acute today. While I am on my feet will you 
permit me to bring the message of the Polish Jews in this 
connection? 

The Chairman: Indeed, certainly. 

Dr. Bogen: The Jews in Poland are exceedingly happy 
that the time has come when they can take part in the gen- 
eral relief activities. Almost everywhere they expressed sat- 
isfaction with the movement, and they also want you to know 
that the most important help that you have given them is not 
only relief and not only money, but it is the moral support 
which you have given them. A member of one of their com- 
mittees over there said to me: "We appreciate very much 
what the Jews in America send us, but more than anything 
else we appreciate the fact that they have let us know that 
they are thinking of us, that we can rely on them, that there 
is some hope besides actual emergency relief." They told mt 
at the time that I was not only a messenger of relief but a 
messenger of hope, and that while they need relief they need 
it in the sense that when we send it we send them not only 
relief but hope. 

The war is over, and as a result of the war, I want to 
repeat, there are thousands of children not provided for. The 
Joint Distribution Committee does provide for at least a por- 
tion of them, but thousands and thousands of children are not 
provided for. The people have no medical assistance. The 
refugees present a most horrible picture of distress. The 
people who could make a living cannot do it because they have 
no credit, and the most important thing, in my opinion, is to 
realize the enormous work of the Joint Distribution Com- 
mittee. You must remember that last winter you people gave 
70,000 overcoats in Poland alone. As I have already said, we 
have provided for the feeding of 40,000 children. In order to 
feed the children you must give as one person. When you 
think of the 10,000 employees in Poland; when you think of 

29 



the 2,200 committees and when you think that all this work 
was done through the Joint Distribution Committee, you will 
realize that this work cannot be stopped abruptly, and will 
have to be continued until the people in Poland are able to 
help themselves and be put in a condition of rehabilitation 
after the horrible conditions created by the war. 

Dr. Gerson B. Levy: I just want to ask one question. In 
the light of what Dr. Bogen has said about the policy to be 
pursued in Poland, it seems to me that the problem of rehabili- 
tation should include also the rehabilitation of Jewish life as 
well as the rehabilitation of the Jew. I would like to ask Col- 
onel Lehman whether the program of rehabilitation has included 
a program of rehabilitation by education. 

Col. Lehman: In answer to that I will say that the 
student committees of the Joint Distribution Committee, the 
American Relief, the People's, and the Central, have done a 
great deal towards that in the way of cultural interests. It 
was not felt by the Joint Distribution Committee or the Re- 
construction Committee that that particular kind of work 
came in the scope of the work of the Joint Distribution Com- 
mittee. I believe that the relief that the Reconstruction Com- 
mittee was to do was set out clearly to be economic recon- 
struction, not spiritual, although that part of the work has, 
of course, received a great deal of attention on the part of the 
other committees. 

The Chairman: The Chair wanted to call attention to 
the fact that Dr. Bogen has been in the relief work since 
1914; that he has just returned from Europe, where he has 
been Chairman of the General Council and he is at the pres- 
ent time the General Director of the Jewish Committee in 
New York. I want to impose upon you. Dr. Bogen, since 
you have been on your feet at this time, to give us informa- 
tion on another question, in which we are all interested, and 
that is the condition of the refugees and the problems which 
they present. It is suggested that Dr. Bogen come forward. 

Dr. Bogen: Mr. Chairman, I wish to say that the question 
of refugees is a very painful question. Last year Mr. James 
Becker and myself, and Mr. Alsberg, I be- 
lieve, visited the jail in Budapest, where we 
saw men, women and children in winter on 
a bare stone floor, with no provision for food 
or heat. They were very badly and scantily 
clothed. Some of them were sick. There 
were babies in mothers' arms, and little chil- 
dren. It was a horrible sight. These were 
no criminals. The only thing there was 
against them was that they were refugees. 
I never saw such a sight before, though I 
visited the Bolsheviki camps in Poland and 
I visited the prisons in various countries, but I never saw 

30 




such a distressing sight as I saw in Budapest, I saw other 
sights later of refugees living in railroad cars, without any 
provisions. I have seen these refugees during a typhus epi- 
demic. I have seen these refugees on the border line of 
Russia in Polowitsky and Pinsk, begging for something to 
eat. They had no hope outside of a day's allowance. There 
is no provision for refugees today. All that we can do is to 
give them just a little bit. In one city we have provision for 
400 refugees, whereas the city has from 10,000 to 15,000. The 
refugee problem is the most distressing problem we have. 
These people are, most of them, people who ran away from 
danger. They all want to return and they all want to be re- 
established. When I tell you that my estimate — and it is a 
conservative estimate (at my age people do not make extrava- 
gant or exaggerated estimates) — I claim there are 200,000 
Jewish refugees who are without a home and looking for a 
place to live. All of them, as I said, or a large majority of 
them, want to return to their homes. The most pathetic 
sights I saw were in the city of Minsk when it was in the pos- 
session of Poland, where I met the refugees from Smargon, a 
little town razed by the enemy, and I asked what I could do, 
and they said the only thing they wanted was to go back to 
Smargon; so I went to Smargon, and there was nothing left 
of that town except chimneys. It was leveled. And yet 
these people still wanted to go back home, wanted to go to 
the same place where their parents were pogromed, where 
their people were put to death, where their brothers and 
sisters had been killed. It is a temporary situation. We 
must provide relief for the refugees, but we must provide 
ways and means by which we can return them to their homes. 
The attempt has been made, especially in Germany, to estab- 
lish these refugees, and they have been very successful. The 
Joint Distribution Committee has supplied funds, and these 
funds have been allocated. Their sufferings are a calamity 
and a shame. The refugees must have five million dollars. 
When it comes to going throughout this country with our 
beautiful parks, public places where people may stay, I claim 
the refugee would consider it a paradise, I believe that you 
ought to count on at least fifty dollars per capita, but what- 
ever your calculation is, I believe we will have sufficient to 
give to Mr. Bernard Cahn, who is an expert on this subject. 
We have established conditions in Galicia, in the Ukraine, and 
in White Russia and Poland, in Bessarabia, where we have 
the machinery to handle it. The plan is to provide palliative 
relief for a number of days or weeks and then try to estab- 
lish them in a place from which we can remove them to their 
homes where they belong. There is a small percentage, but 
a considerable number of prospective emigrants, people who 
have the documents and who are entitled, as far as legal pro- 
ceedings are concerned, to come to this country, but who can- 
not come on account of the restriction in immigration. Again, 

31 



there are others who do not have sufficient documents as yet, 
but these represent a small part. We are not handling it. 
We ought not to handle it. That should be handled by a 
separate organization. But what we are interested in, at least 
what I am interested in, is to see that provision is made for 
those refugees who are temporarily dislocated from their 
homes. I hope in a general way the problem is beginning to 
be understood, the various ways of helping the refugees by 
providing a home. Providing a home for one hundred or two 
hundred people is misleading. The number of refugees as 
estimated by us now is based upon a census that has been 
taken at our stations. We are trying to correlate all the dif- 
ferent organizations. As soon as the money is provided I 
believe you can depend upon the ability of Mr. Cahn that the 
machinery is ready to help these people. I have considered 
the refuge problem as a temporary problem. 

The Chairman: Are there any questions to be asked of 
Dr. Bogen? 

Dr. Bogen: Mr. Becker wants me to correct a mistake 
I made. I cannot dispute Becker because he is so much 
younger but so much wiser than I am that when he gives me 
an order, I must obey. He thinks that I made a mistake and 
that the number of refugees in Russia as they look now will 
reach 500,000. 

Mr. Block: I would like to ask the Doctor a question at 
this time relative to anti-Semitism and whether or not you 
meet with any interference in giving aid. 

The Chairman: The gentleman wants to know if the 
gentlemen in Europe, functioning there, are meeting with any 
lack of co-operation from the non-Jewish population in Poland. 

Dr. Bogen: I hope that the gentleman who has asked 
the question does not expect me to say yes or no, because that 
would be a very difficult proposition. It would remind me of a 
person who would ask me whether I have stopped beating my 
wife. (Laughter.) If it is not only a painful question, it is a 
very ticklish question. There is no question that there is some 
feeling of animosity existing between the various groups of 
population in these war countries. I cannot say that we were 
in any way interfered with by the governments in the countries 
where we were, but, to put it mildly, sometimes we were mis- 
understood. However, upon longer acquaintance, people got 
used to us and we got used to them. We do not meet with 
those terrible, horrible things that we met with twelve months 
ago. Twelve months ago, when there was the invasion and 
the retiring armies, the Jews were receiving a very raw deal. 
You can see this by the fact that when you visit these par- 
ticular territories you will still find women crying over the 
fact that they have lost every member of their family. You 
will see little girls and women who have lost everything that 
is dear to a woman. You will see a whole hospital of infected 

32 



women. You will see men who are lame and maimed by this 
horrible, warlike attitude, but during the last twelve months 
conditions have changed. They are now being treated much 
better, and when I say that they are now being treated much 
better, I mean all the people, the Jewish people and all the 
people in these countries are treated better. So far as our 
relief work is concerned, we have gained a great deal in getting 
the co-operation of the governments. We have been successful 
in helping our people to get consideration, which was one of 
our problems in the matter of relief. Our institutions in many 
places are now receiving not equal but at least some support 
from the Government. On the whole, I can report that the 
conditions are improving. 

The Chairman : The Chair at this time desires to pre- 
sent for the consideration of the Conference the following 
committee on Memorial to Mr. Jacob A. Schiff: Mr. Julius 
Rosenwald, Chairman; Mr. Louis Marshall, Dr. Emil G. 
Hirsch, Mr. Henry Morgenthau, Mr. Mortimer Fleishhacker, 
Mr. Irvin F. Lehman and Mr. Jacob Billikopf. Are there any 
further suggestions or corrections? If not, the committee will 
stand as named. 

Mr. Freimuth: I would like to inquire of Col. Lehman 
whether a survey or an attempt at a survey has been made of 
how many there are in the distressed districts of Poland, who 
could be assisted and made self-supporting. 

Col. Lehman: I cannot answer it categorically. There 
has been no numerical survey made. There has been a survey 
made of economic conditions in each one of the countries 
where we have started work. I think it would be almost 
impossible to make a survey along the lines you state. Of 
course the number of people that could be helped would so 
greatly depend upon the amount of money that we had at our 
disposal. I w^ant to make it very clear to you that we cannot 
possibly hope, with the amount that we have on hand or that 
we may expect to raise, with any reasonable degree of cer- 
tainty, to help more than a small proportion of the people who 
need our help in any of the districts in which we are now 
working. 

The Chairman : The Chair would like to present for the 
consideration of the Conference the following question: The 
Committee on Arrangements have thought that we could pro- 
ceed along more direct lines upon the assurance that no publicity 
would be given to the questions being considered by the Con- 
ference. The question is now raised whether or not we want 
any of the papers to know about this Conference. If a statement 
is to be prepared for the Sunday papers it ought to be ready by 
five o'clock this afternoon. The Chair wants to call attention to 
the fact that if that is done, Mr. Henry G. Alsberg will under- 
take the work of preparing the material for publicity. In this 
connection let it also be remembered that if any statement is 

33 



given out today, that undoubtedly tomorrow the press will be 
present, whether we want to give out anything or not. What 
is the pleasure of the Conference upon this question of 
publicity? 

Judge Harry Fisher: Mr. Chairman, don't you think it is 
too early to consider the question of publicity now? We are 
just listening to reports. We ourselves do not know what is in 
the minds of the delegates here assembled. Perhaps when we 
get to consider concrete propositions for future work, when we 
get some results from our deliberations, we may be able to 
make some proper statement. Until then I move that no state- 
ment for publicity be made. 

Motion seconded, put and carried. 

Mr. Paul F. Feiss: Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that the 
Committee or ofBcers should be authorized to give the news- 
papers such publicity as they think it wise; otherwise there 
will be something published and it will be wrong. 

The Chairman: Let the Chair call Mr. Feiss' attention 
to the fact that the Conference has decided that there should 
not be any publicity. Now do I understand you to move that 
a committee be appointed to decide this question? 

Mr. Feiss: I should think that we ought to have had an 
opportunity to discuss the question. Not having had it I should 
like to so move. 

The Chairman: Mr. Feiss moves to reconsider this ques- 
tion of giving out publicity. 

Motion seconded, put and carried. 

The Chairman: The question is, to reconsider. What are 
your suggestions, Mr. Feiss? 

Mr. Feiss: It seems to be almost impossible to have a 
conference of this size without the newspapers knowing about 
it, and from such experience as I have had they are going to 
have something about it in tomorrow's paper, which I think 
should be accurately published. That is much better than to 
have it put in inaccurately. 

Mr. Rosenberg (New York) : If anything goes to the 
press, it has got to be there by five o'clock, as I understand. 
This question ought to be settled and I therefore move, unless 
there is such a motion before the house, that the Chair appoint 
three members to decide the entire question, whether or not 
to give a statement, and if so, to give it, because there is less 
than an hour's time to decide it. 

Motion seconded. 

The Chairman: The question before the house is the 
motion that no publicity be had until action is taken on that 
matter by the Conference, Mr. Rosenberg of New York moves 
a substitute motion for Judge Fisher's motion, that the Chair 

34 



be authorized to appoint a committee on the question of pub- 
licity and that that committee have power to act. Any remarks? 

The Chairman: Are you ready for the question? 

Question called for. 

Motion put and carried. 

The Chairman: The following committee will be ap- 
pointed: Mr. Alsberg, of New York; Dr. Bogen, of Cincin- 
nati; Mr. Billikopf, of Philadelphia; Mr. Frankel, of Toronto; 
Mr. Kline, of Chicago; Mr. Cans, of New York. Have you 
got a statement ready, Mr. Alsberg? The Chair has omitted 
one more name that I think should be on that committee. 

The Chairman: May I at this time, on behalf of Chicago, 
express the satisfaction which has been ours for the apprecia- 
tion which all of you gentlemen have given in the field to the 
feeble and modest efforts of James Becker. (Applause.) 

Mr. Rosenberg: Will you ask Mr. Becker to risfe so some 
of these people who do not know him may see him. 

The Chairman: I am going to ask Mr. Becker not only 
to rise but to tell us, in his own way, his observations, and 
what his conclusions are of the child-care and of his man- 
ner of work for the Joint Distribution Committee. Mr. James 
Becker. 

Mr. James Becker: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen — Before 
I start to talk I should like to ask if a motion is in order that 
each speaker henceforth be limited to ten minutes, and inas- 
much as it is getting late I think that rule ought to go into 
effect immediately, as proposed by Mr. Warburg. 

The Chairman: Mr. Becker is out of order. (Laugh- 
ter.) The Chair repeats that Mr. Becker is out of order. 

Mr. Becker: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — There 
is unquestionably no problem so bad in all Europe as the orphan 
problem. No one who has been in eastern 
Europe can possibly forget those starved, 
naked, diseased, neglected children. 

In talking about the orphan problem I 
always think of a little incident that occurred 
when I went from the Roumanian border in 
mid-winter into the Ukraine. This was in 
December and although I traveled with the 
heaviest possible clothing, heavy woolen un- 
derwear and woolen uniform and two pairs 
of heavy wool socks and heavy shoes and 
overshoes and overcoat and a sweater, and 
then another overcoat and six blankets, still at the end of 
a day's trip I would always be numb with cold, and yet 
when I reached Kamanetz-Podolsk in the Ukraine and visited 
the typhus wards in the children's hospitals, I found that 
they had no heat, because there was no coal and no fire- 
wood. I was obliged to travel very slowly because there were 

35 




no railroads and it was impossible to bring fuel, and while in 
those hospitals, going around from bed to bed I saw that they 
were wooden horses, across which were stretched bare boards 
with mattresses consisting of gunny-sacks filled with straw — 
no pillow cases, no sheets, no milk, no disinfectants. The 
windows had to be sealed because it was so terribly cold and 
as you can imagine the odors were so awful that we could 
hardly bear to remain in the building for more than five min- 
utes at a time. Still one would see three or four or even five 
children in a single bed, and when I asked the doctors why it 
was that these children were huddled together, they invariably 
would say that it was due to the fact that their animal instincts 
taught them to huddle together because of the terrific cold in 
these hospitals. 

I am not telling you the story because it is a painful story, 
this is just one of the instances that I happened to see in my 
trip through eastern Europe. I am relating that to you not 
because I think you have to hear painful stories, for I know 
that if you were not interested in this work you would not be 
here, but I am telling you that to give you some idea of the 
conditions under which those poor children are trying to sur- 
vive in southeastern Russia and eastern Poland, and no one 
who has not been in southeastern Russia and eastern Poland 
can have any idea of the hell through which those children are 
passing. 

There are a minimum of a hundred thousand to a hundred 
and fifty thousand Jewish war orphans in Europe, and I am 
convinced that that is a conservative statement. The problem 
of the Joint Distribution Committee is during the next five 
years to take care of at least 50,000 children per year, or one- 
third to one-half of the children. 

From the very beginning, from 1914, subventions were 
given by the Joint Distribution Committee to the existing 
orphanages — per capita subventions were given to different 
families, that they might immediately care for the different 
children. We had inspectors traveling through the various 
parts of the country to see that the children were provided 
for after they were placed in the different families, but with all 
our work only a small proportion of the children were provided 
for. 

At present the work in Europe is on a functional basis, 
whereby there is a director in each of the departments. The 
work of child-care originally was under Doctor Peiser's super- 
vision. Unfortunately he is now ill, and Dr. Schoen is taking 
his place, and we are caring today for 12,000 orphans — 12,000 
orphans out of 100,000 to 150,000. Of this number 1,000 are 
being cared for by the so-called financial adoption plan. By 
that plan I mean the system which has been instituted in this 
country whereby a person will give $100, and this $100 will go 

36 



to an individual orphan in Europe. In order to carry out this 
work in Europe, the department of child-care has various 
directors in each country, and these directors in turn have men 
who are in charge of each district. These district directors 
get the names and the pictures and full records of all the 
orphans and these are sent to the main offices in each country 
and in turn are sent to Paris and then to America. In America 
the work in New York is under Dr. Lowenstein's direction and 
as the money is given these orphans are financially but not 
legally adopted and it is planned that later on each person 
shall be placed in connection with the orphan so adopted, in 
order that he may be able to communicate with the orphan, as 
is done with the French orphans. We hope later on to extend 
this method of per capita subvention, for it is necessary that 
50,000 children be cared for in the next five years. 

In addition to that type of work we have another type of 
work in New York, the so-called location work; that is, finding 
children in Europe who have relatives in this country, who are 
willing to enable them to come to this country. The office in 
New York assists them to get the legal papers to come to this 
country. Naturally a very few children, today not over 300, have 
been brought from Europe. Today our only hope, if we are to 
save these poor orphans, is the so-called adoption plan. That 
is the plan which we hope to put into effect, 

I could go on talking for a few hours about the orphans in 
Europe. My only object is to give you a brief outline of 
what the problem is and how we are to meet it. Fifty thou- 
sand orphans at $100 apiece, means $5,000,000 a year. These 
children will have to be cared for for five years. Many of you 
have already solved in your businesses, problems that are far 
more difficult to solve than the orphan problem in Europe, for 
fundamentally the orphan problem in Europe is not a difficult 
one to solve. It is merely a problem of organization and one 
which can easily be put through, if you gentlemen see to it 
that the necessary steps are taken to provide the money. 

If there is any message which I bring back from Europe, 
which any one of your workers has brought back from Europe, 
it is this : That in this terrible hour of need these poor, 
neglected, starving children should not be forgotten, regardless 
of what the conditions are in America, regardless of what our 
charities may be, because the needs of the charities here in the 
worst condition are as Paradise when compared with what 
those children are in need of in eastern and southern Russia. 
(Applause.) 

The Chairman: Are there any questions? 

The Chairman: The representatives of the American Jew- 
ish Relief Committee will be asked to present to this Con- 
ference such plans as they have at the present time in regard 
to any campaign for raising funds, so that we may discuss 

37 



that program. We have asked all those who have been con- 
cerned with the functional activities of the J. D. C. to give 
us their bird's eye view of the particular work which they have 
been carrying out. I know that the question has been asked 
during this Conference as it has been asked before the Con- 
ference: "What of Russia? What is the situation there?" 
The Chair wants to ask Dr. Rosenblatt at this time to tell us 
about the situation in Russia as he understands it. Dr. Rosen- 
blatt, (Applause.) 

Dr. Rosenblatt: Mr. Chairman 

The Chairman: Before the Doctor begins I want you 
to know that he has been in Siberia and he has been to 
Russia in every part where they would let him go. He has 
done the executive work and what he has brought to us is an 
understanding of the work. 

Dr. Rosenblatt: I feel somewhat hesitant in speaking on 

Russia for various reasons, particularly because I shall have to 

touch upon the various functional activities 

^.; which have been assigned to various people 

^ ^M^^ before. Russia is in a class by herself. The 

^W^^^, Joint Distribution Committee could not send 

I K^s* * special representatives of the various func- 

^W^p^ w tional activities and had to entrust the work 

» , of child-care, of medical care, of reconstruc- 

I — tion, of rehabilitation work, and the other 

I A . activities to one man. 

d|^k ^ , L And now in the ancient times the Romans 

or the Greeks had a custom when they 
wanted to convey a cheerful message to their 
neighbor, of choosing a slave, because the people who re- 
ceived the cheerful message were so grateful to God that 
they had to sacrifice that messenger to God. The Joint Dis- 
tribution Committee had to send a cheerful message through 
me and they chose me as the bearer of that message. It was, 
indeed, a difficult task. The conditions may have changed for 
the better now. I hope they have. At that time I had the 
difficulties not only of proper distribution of the relief funds 
but also how to distribute, to get the permission to distribute 
those funds. Judge Fisher of this city and Mr. Pine of New 
York had been in Russia before, and they had made arrange- 
ments, but the conditions in Russia are such, as they stated 
quite frankly and candidly, that there is no law but the one, 
and that is to do what is good today and to undo what is not 
good tomorrow. The relief the Joint Distribution Committee 
could afford to arrange for was not sent in full measure on that 
account. A million dollars had been appropriated prior to 
my entrance into Russia and that million dollars had never 
been touched while I was there because of those difficulties. 

While I was in Siberia I had the problem of helping the 
war prisoners. There were a number of refugees, a number 

38 



of exiles from Lithuania, from Poland and other territories, in 
Russia, but the main problem was the war prisoners. The 
Kolschak Government was very hostile to the work of the 
Joint Distribution Committee because they did not want to 
have the enemy prisoners. The condition in Russia proper 
was different. It was not a question of not wanting to help 
the Jewish sufferers; it was a question of how to help the 
Jews and at the same time how to help the whole of Russia. 
The whole of Russia has been suffering, is suffering and will 
undoubtedly suffer for a time to come, but there is no compari- 
son between the suffering of the Jews in Russia and the Jews 
of the other countries. There is no comparison between the 
suffering of the Jews in Ukraine, in White Russia and in Cen- 
tral Russia, and the suffering of the non-Jews in these same 
countries. The peculiar conditions, the economic and the legal 
conditions of Russia were such — they may have changed 
slightly now, that the economic basis has been torn out from 
under the feet of the people — but if a man bought a pound of 
potatoes he was liable to be arrested as a speculator and shot. 
I have a list, a very long list, only from one town, during my 
stay in Moscow, in which town about 50 or 60 Jews were shot 
because they were accused of being speculators. Their specu- 
lation consisted of selling a pound of potatoes or a pound of 
flour or trying to buy a pair of shoes or a pound of sugar. 
The non-Jews did not need to have recourse entirely to specu- 
lation. A great number of them were soldiers in the red army, 
and they and their families were provided for. A great num- 
ber were workmen for the Government and they were provided 
for. Whether they worked full time or half time or quarter time, 
the peasants, whether they had a surplus from 1914 or 1910, 
could manage in one way or another, to keep soul and body to- 
gether. Entirely different was the situation of the Jews who 
had been prior to the Russian revolution small merchants, small 
artisans and "luftmenschen." When they had no right to buy 
or sell anything the economic conditions of Russia could not 
provide for them to settle either on land or as workmen. 
They had to speculate, even though at the risk of their lives, 
at the risk of their families, but they had to do it. They told 
me frankly that if they knew that they would be shot 
tomorrow they would go out and speculate, because they could 
not help it. They would have to live today. The question of 
palliative relief, therefore, the picture that was drawn here by 
Mr. Warburg, by Dr. Bogen, by Col. Lehman, showing that 
there is no need of palliative relief in Central Europe, in 
Poland, Roumania and other countries, this picture could not 
be applied to Russia. Russia is in need of palliative relief. 
You must send them food; you must send them clothing; you 
must send them something to provide shelter. 

Aside from the economic conditions of Russia, aside from 
the famine, Russia today, as it was three or four years ago, is 

39 



a hot-bed of pogroms, of murder, of insanity. The Jews in 
the Ukraine, in White Russia, whatever their poHtical views 
may be, whether pro-Soviet or anti-Soviet, may be attacked 
by either. The one thing in their minds is, how to save them- 
selves from pogroms. Pogroms are going on daily. They 
spring up sporadically, unsystematically, in one place one week 
and the next week in another place, and there is no power on 
God's earth which can cope with the situation of the pogroms. 
I do not want you to misunderstand me. The Russian Govern- 
ment is trying its utmost to cope with the situation but it is 
powerless, because these pogroms, this pogrom movement, 
these criminal ways of killing the Jews, are a movement 
against the Soviet government. It is synonymous with them 
to make a pogrom and to fight the Soviet government and 
therefore the one insoluble problem today is how to cope with 
the pogrom situation. We cannot stop it and there are tens of 
thousands of Jewish families who are like the ancient Jew, like 
the eternal Jew, traveling from town to town, not finding a 
rest, and they cannot find rest because those towns cannot 
provide for them. They have no shelter to offer them; they 
have no food to give them; they have no protection to give 
them, and it is the duty of every American Jew to think of 
the Russian Jews first of all. I know Mr. Becker made a very 
strong appeal on behalf of the children. Mr. Gans proved to 
you that if we will not establish child-care, if they will die 
from typhus or from cholera, there will be no use for our 
work. Dr. Bogen has presented his views on refugees. Every 
speaker has presented his views. Now I am the salesman of 
all. I want to sell you children, medical work, rehabilitation 
work and refugee work. Tens of thousands of refugees are 
wandering around the Ukraine and White Russia. They are 
suffering in their misery and they cannot for one moment be 
compared with the paradise of the refugees in Roumania, or 
in Poland, or in any other country. It is just wandering and 
being afraid every night that they will never rise again. 

As to children, there are at least 200,000 children in the 
Ukraine alone, without shelter, without food, without protec- 
tion. While I was there we tried to gather statistics. It was 
impossible to collect statistics of the children, but after careful 
investigation — and I knew the resources of the Joint Distribu- 
tion Committee, I knew I could not come with chimerical 
plans to the Joint Distribution Committee — after sifting, after 
careful information, we decided that 95,000 children were there 
in danger of death if you did not take care of them imme- 
diately — 95,000 children! Now those children are not only 
without shelter, they are not only without protection, they 
are without feeling, and that fills me with horror. Most of 
all to think of the future of those children. Many of them 
will undoubtedly die. We cannot save all of them. Many of 
them, if the Divine law is correct, will save themselves in 

40 



spite of everything; but the danger is that those who will save 
themselves will be a disgrace to the Jews of the world. 

I witnessed scenes of children playing. What is the play, 
what is the game of the children? They are playing in 
pogroms, a group of 25 children on one side and a group of 
25 children on the other side. One group is the pogrom maker 
and the other group consists of Jews who must save them- 
selves, and the psychology of those children, the frame of mind 
of those children is the most horrible thing to think of. 

Children of 5, 6, 7 or 8 years are forced to go out not only 
to battle, but to speculate. Speculation was a terrible crime 
in Russia and whatever bad you can think of speculation 
under conditions in Russia, the child gets imbued with those 
bad ideas, hence he has got to conceal, he has got to hide, 
he has got to bribe, he has got to do everything possible in 
order to bring to his mother a pound of flour or something 
else. Those children must be saved. 

The Joint Distribution Committee, during my stay there, 
during last year, sent about one million dollars' worth of sup- 
plies, mostly food and clothing, but that was a drop in the 
ocean. There are hundreds of thousands of Jews wandering 
around in the Ukraine, in White Russia, hundreds of thou- 
sands of children there and they could not be helped with one 
million dollars. 

Mr. Cans spoke of the medical work. It would be prepos- 
terous on our part to undertake a medical, sanitary program 
for Russia. The country is infested with all kinds of diseases, 
of plagues, of typhus. We cannot fight those diseases. We 
cannot introduce sanitary methods. But it is our prime duty 
to send medicaments and medical instruments to fight the 
typhus and the other diseases. There are hundreds of thou- 
sands of children who will remain with a terrible defect — 
favus it is called — it is not a thing that they may die from 
but it is a nasty or an ugly thing for a man or a woman to 
have. It can be cured very easily but it requires X-ray ma- 
chines, and they have not got them. 

To speak of rehabilitation — it would be impossible for us 
to speak of reconstruction of Russian Jewry and yet there is no 
more sacred duty for the Jews of America than that. We must 
remember that there are hundreds of thousands of Jews who 
have been torn out from their former life who have to adapt 
themselves to new conditions; and they can, on the land as 
small workmen, if we give them the means. There is plenty 
of land in the Ukraine and in White Russia, land which the 
Soviet government would be only too happy to have the Jews 
take, but they have no seeds, they have no agricultural imple- 
ments. The tendency during the last two or three years among 
the Jews in the Ukraine and in White Russia is towards land, 

41 



to settle on the land. In short, you have all these problems, 
child-care, refugee work, child work, and most of all palliative 
relief, that you must offer to Russia. I am convinced that 
the next campaign will bring an appeal from Russia to the 
Jews in America to help the Jews of Russia to get again on 
their feet. (Applause.) 

Judge Jacob Asher: Might I ask not only the last speaker 
but the previous speakers, what co-operation is going on be- 
tween the J. D. C. and the other relief organizations, such as 
Hoover's committee. The question is sometimes asked of our 
own relief committee as to what Hoover is taking care of and 
we would like some information. 

Mr, Becker: The Joint Distribution Committee has co- 
operated very closely with the American Relief Commis- 
sion; or, perhaps, to state it better, the other way around: In 
the American Relief administration we have always found a 
great friend in Mr, Hoover and I think that every one can 
say, whether the work was in Roumania, in Poland, or in 
Austria or in Germany, that the American Relief Committee, 
co-operated in every way with the Joint Distribution Com- 
mittee, and that in the work by Mr, Hoover the work was 
carried on along non-sectarian lines. The American Red Cross 
has co-operated, perhaps, to a lesser degree than the American 
Relief, but, nevertheless, I, working for the Joint Distribution 
Committee, know that for the last six or eight months, the 
committees have been working together; the Joint Distribution 
Committee has received considerable aid from the American 
Red Cross in Poland and through the American Red Cross we 
have had placed at our disposal some six hundred thousand 
dollars worth of medical supplies, which will be of tremendous 
help to us, and the Joint Distribution Committee has received 
help from the American Relief and the American Relief has 
received help from them. 

Mr. Warburg: I want to add that the children will have 
to be taken care of. You have touched upon the orphan prob- 
lem and w^hen the orphan problem comes up the orphans will 
have to be taken care of. 

Mr. Eisenman: Mr. Chairman, may I suggest that we 
resolve ourselves into a committee of the whole and do the 
thing that we were brought here to do and that is to pro- 
vide ways and means for the very things that we are hear- 
ing these appeals about. I conclude that it is well under- 
stood that there is great need for the rehabilitation of the 
unfortunate peoples of Europe, I doubt very much whether 
any of the speakers could in any way accentuate our de- 
sire to help. We were brought here, I take it, for the pur- 
pose of helping, and I would like very much to begin to think 
how we can best help those in Europe who need our help and 
do the thing without any further tales of woe, of which we 
are fully aware, I do not wish to appear unappreciative, Mr, 

42 



Chairman, but I think that this body desires, in the interest of 
time, to co-operate with the Joint Distribution Committee, who 
know this job above all else, and to have plenty of time to 
consider with them what we shall do while we are here and 
what we shall do after we get to our respective homes. I 
would respectfully move you, Mr. Chairman, that we get from 
the Joint Distribution Committee of New York a score-card 
of the game, which I know they have, and to let us discuss 
with them how we can help them. 

The Chairman: Mr, Eisenman's suggestion can be readily 
carried into effect, I know this conference will agree with me. 
If we want to take a peep into the future, ask the man what 
to do, while we have the man here who can give us the an- 
swer. May I call upon you, Mr. Louis Marshall of New York? 

Mr. Marshall: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — 
First of all, let me repeat to the community of Chicago the 
thanks that have been already expressed by 
Mr. Warburg for the opportunity of meeting 
in this conference. We have been working 
for seven years nearly in the problem of war 
relief, and we have not had the opportunity, 
except as we have had our campaigns in the 
various communities, to discuss the problem 
which confronts this committee. There is 
nothing so valuable as interchange of opinion, 
of the opportunity of the people of the coun- 
try to come together and to understand what 
is to be done and how the work should be 
done, and at the same time I say, with all due respect to Mr. 
Feiss and Mr. Eisenman, it is important that your committee 
shall have an opportunity to give an account of its steward- 
ship. 

The least we can do is to take into our confidence the men 
who are responsible to their several communities and let them 
know what we have done and how we have done it. 

There is no man to whom we owe more than to the father 
of this conference, James Becker. (Applause). 

He called a conference of the workers in Vienna last year 
and got up for the first time an intelligent budget, and now^ 
he has brought us together for the purpose of finding the 
ways and means of raising the money to meet that budget. 

If this war work has accomplished anything for the people 
abroad, it has accomplished much more for us here in Amer- 
ica. It has created a Jewish solidarity which has never before 
existed to the degree that it exists today, and the heart-throbs 
of Eastern Europe are felt right here among us. (Applause.) 
And, as Mr. Billikopf has frequently said, the spiritual by- 
products of this work are most valuable. 

Chicago has raised large sums for its war work. It has 
dealt with us munificently, but if we were to capitalize James 

43 




Becker as an asset, it would be valued more than all the 
money in Chicago. (Applause.) It is true that we have had 
these reports — and they are agonizing reports. You have heard 
merely the pale reflection of what actually has occurred, from 
those who have been on the scene of action, from the men 
who have talked here today. Dr. Krass and the others who 
will talk here today know more than they can ever tell of what 
has transpired, and it is the most horrible reading matter that 
can be presented to a man with a heart to read the reports 
that come to the Joint Distribution Committee, month after 
month, from every part of Europe, of the terrible sufferings 
of our brethren. We have done much. If anybody had told 
me in October, 1914, when the American Jewish Relief Com- 
mittee was organized, that in the next seven years the Jews 
of the United States would collect in one fund $47,000,000 for 
war relief, I would have thought it a war dream; but we 
have done it. We have not reached the end. The problem 
still confronts us as an appealing one. It has been modified, 
but it has taken a different form. Palliative relief is no longer 
necessary outside of Russia. Alms-giving has no longer any 
office to perform in that part of Europe which is not contained 
in Russia, but the problems now are the more important, the 
greater problems, those that require statesmanship. The giv- 
ing of alms requires merely a willing heart and a ready hand. 
How to help the people rehabilitate themselves, to become 
self supporting, to make it possible for these young children 
to live — those are the real problems. The highest conception 
of character that the world has ever known is — and I can say 
it with all modesty as a Jew — that of the Jewish people, not 
merely the giving of alms, the highest charity is that of help- 
ing men and women to help themselves and to gain their self- 
respect. (Applause.) Now that is precisely the program that 
we desire to lay before this meeting today, and it is with 
respect to that that we have called together this conference 
in order that we may get the judgment of those present and 
the whole-hearted assistance of those present to carry out that 
program. 

In the first place, leaving the subject where the last 
speaker left it, we want to say that there is entire concurrence 
on the part of the Joint Distribution Committee in the idea 
that we must make provision for the Jews of the Ukraine and 
in White Russia and in such other parts of Russia where there 
are Jews who are suffering, and nobody can pen the picture 
of those sufferings. The veil has only been partially lifted. 
We will never know the full extent of the horror. If there 
has not been a loss of 25 per cent, of all the Jews of the 
Ukraine by death and murder and by pestilence, our calcula- 
tions are very much astray. Let us not say anything about 
the dead. We must consider the living. We must give to 
them their chance, the same opportunity that we have had; 
let us give to those children, those innocent children of Russia, 

44 



the same opportunity that we expect for our children and our 
children's children, and therefore let us remember that, al- 
though for the last seven years, even in the midst of the 
conflict, we were able to do relief work in Poland, in Lithuania, 
in Czecho-Slovakia, in Roumania, we have practically been 
excluded from doing anything for our brethren in Russia. This 
is a question of common humanity, and it is also a question of 
Jewish self-preservation. We are not to be misled by any slo- 
gan or by prejudice or by ignorance. The people who are suf- 
fering are not responsible for this suffering; they are the 
victims of every party, of every army, of every group of 
bandits who infest the Ukraine, and they are entitled to the 
same consideration that we would give to any human beings 
in like circumstances. Yes, they have been the victims of 
pogroms, and those pogroms are still continuing. It will 
be a long time before they disappear, but disappear they 
must, disappear they will. I do not take the pessimistic view 
that the future is black. If we ask that we may keep the 
people alive, God will find a way of putting an end to these 
horrors, because they cannot continue much longer. Lest, 
however, anybody should feel that in carrying on this war 
relief in Poland, we are doing aught that the most patriotic 
American citizen can criticize, let it be understood that we 
have entered into the most complete arrangement with the 
Hoover organization, which is the organization behind which 
stands the Government of the United States, to co-operate with 
them, to have our representative work with that committee, 
to visit those regions under the auspices of that American 
organization, and, moreover, we have co-operated, and will co- 
operate with the Society of Friends, and also have our own 
representatives for the purpose of carrying on the work of giv- 
ing help. 

Therefore, the first proposition which relates to the subject 
of palliative relief is to be considered as confined exclusively to 
Russia, which includes the Ukraine and White Russia, and 
various districts in Russia proper. That, however, means not 
merely the giving of alms. That necessarily means rehabilita- 
tion work; that necessarily means work with the orphans and 
sanitary work, the same kind of work we are doing in other 
parts of Europe and intend to do in other parts of Europe. 

Tentatively, in order to indicate a sense of proportion, our 
idea has been that the total amount of money that should be 
raised in the United States in the campaign upon which we 
are to embark now, should be approximately fourteen million 
dollars, and on that basis our idea is that approximately five 
million dollars should be spent in Russia. When we consider 
the large amount of money that has been spent in other parts 
of Europe that is a very small sum indeed, but it is probably 
as large as we can use economically and practically during the 
coming year, with the aid of the A. R. A. and Society of 

45 



Friends and such instrumentalities as we ourselves can create 
for the purpose of doing the work which is attempted to be 
done in Russia. Nobody need feel that in contributing money 
to that cause he is doing anything that is contrary to the 
policy of our Government, because, even in those plans which 
turned out not to be effective, or which we had entered into 
heretofore, they were submitted to the State Department and 
they were approved. Therefore it is clear that our Govern- 
ment is not only willing but desirous that we shall do what- 
ever work can be done for the sake of humanity in the pres- 
ervation of Jewish Russia. (Applause.) 

Let us then pass to the next page of our problem: The 
proposition that we made in pursuance of the budget which 
was prepared at the Vienna Conference, covering a period 
which expired on the first of July of this year. Therefore, on 
the basis of that program, which has been established more 
than a year ago, and which has been conscientiously carried 
into effect, and which we believe has been very useful and 
very effective, we would probably require for the current six 
months from the first of January, approximately a million and 
a half. That takes care of six and a half millions of dollars. 

Then comes the question of the refugee, which has been 
so graphically portrayed by Dr. Bogen. His report is that of 
an eye-witness. He has taken great risks, great chances in 
penetrating into some districts that he visited. We, unfortu- 
nately, lost two of our Jews in this time, penetrating into 
the Ukraine, Professor Friedlander and Rabbi Cantor. And 
every one of our workers has performed heroic tasks, has taken 
his life literally into his hands, in visiting some districts. Dr. 
Bogen, in the results of his investigation, supplemented by 
reports that have come from various parts of Europe — one 
remarkable report which we heard recently from one of our 
workers who visited Hungary — shows this terrible problem, 
which is an acute problem, of the refugee. I believe his 
estimate of 200,000 is a very moderate one when you consider, 
of course, the condition in the Ukraine and in Russia, you will 
find probably there will be a much larger number of people 
who must be brought back to their homes. Because, as dur- 
ing the war, when the Germans made their inroads into Russia, 
the Russian army sent the Jews helter-skelter into all parts of 
Russia, down to the Ural Mountains and to the Caucausas, and 
some into Siberia. These people desire to return to their 
homes. Now, understand me, I don't want any misunderstand- 
ing on that proposition. This refugee problem is not an emi- 
gration problem. This Committee has nothing whatsoever to 
do with the subject of immigration, directly or indirectly. 
There is probably no chance for immigration under the law as 
it stands today. However much we feel that the law enacted is 
unwise — this is not an immigration problem. Understand that 
and tell your people we are not trying to bring these hundreds 

46 



of thousands of people from Europe into America, but we are 
trying to return them to their homes, where they desire to go, 
and to give them an opportunity in their homes once more to 
lead the lives that they led before the horrors of war burst upon 
them. 

Now that re-creation problem is a serious one. It is diffi- 
cult to put into dollars and cents, it all depends upon the dis- 
tribution. They have got to be transported, and the transpor- 
tation has to be paid. If I say that we would require two 
million dollars for that problem it would be less than is actually 
necessary. 

Now, then, there is the sanitation problem, which Mr. 
Gans has carefully explained, and which is so important, not 
only from the standpoint of the people who are in need of 
sanitation, but it is important for every part of the world. I 
have fears that unless we fight typhus in the countries where 
it exists, the time may come when it will jump the ocean, 
as other diseases such as this have jumped the ocean. And 
when we fight this disease in Eastern Europe we are not only 
protecting the people there and saving their lives, but we are 
protecting our fellow-citizens and the children of America. It 
is not a small matter, but I may say that the organization that 
has been perfected is an admirable one, and as has been said — 
we are not seeking to superimpose ourselves upon the people 
there, but we are trying, through our representatives, to fa- 
miliarize ourselves with the conditions in those countries, with 
the necessities dealing with sanitary problems, so that they may 
be able to save themselves with our help and the plans we may 
develop; to convert a country which throughout its borders 
has thus far been ignorant of the first principles of hygiene and 
sanitation into one which these new ideas in respect to sanita- 
tion have at last entered. I do not attempt to say how much 
that would require. I presume quite a large sum. 

Then the need that has been emphasized by Colonel Leh- 
man requires no further elaboration, so far as I am concerned. 
The plans of the committee have been fully studied. Colonel 
Lehman is an expert on matters of that sort. He has had 
associated with him men who have given the matter most care- 
ful thought. The plans are wide. They are based on business 
principles and at the same time the sentimental and essential 
features of the problem have been recognized. They are prac- 
tical. We here cannot judge as to what the proper basis for 
doing that kind of work should be as well as those who are 
familiar with the conditions. At first blush I will say just 
what Mr. Kraus said upon this subject of interest loans. 
That is outside the question. The people themselves do not 
want it. It would not have been considered as a gift to let 
them have money with the idea they will have to pay it back 
and pay some sort of interest to cover administration. That 

47 



can't work. It would be - only another way of telling them, 
"Well, we never expected to get this money back with inter- 
est at 6 per cent." I think we better not here in Chicago deal 
with the subject of how that business should be done, other- 
wise we would be put in the position of the Schnorrer who 
was told by Rothschild as to what his ideas were as to how 
to do business. "You must not attempt to tell me about my 
own business. I understand that better." 

Then we come to that phase of the subject which would 
move to tears the most hardened individual — the fate of the 
children. It has been feelingly and touchingly presented by 
Dr. Bogen. The things whereof he speaks he has sur- 
veyed, as far as a survey is possible of the situation. The 
money gives out before we reach the end of the line. No 
matter how much we can raise we can only give partial 
relief. Let us add as many as we can, but let us not set 
a low figure. We can't help everybody. We must help as 
many as it is practicable to help. We must consider, too, 
that when we consider these orphans we have a problem — not 
merely helping them for a year, otherwise their latter state 
would be worse than their present. We have got to take care 
of them for a reasonable period of time. We may have to 
devise various methods of interesting the community in the 
orphans. Whether it will be a matter of a total that can be 
reached during the campaign, may be a matter to discuss here 
when the conference is getting the ideas. The idea of adop- 
tion by bringing the children to this country is out of the 
question. We can't get them in. There may be, however, a 
policy of adoption — pecuniary adoption — by having people here 
take care of the children on the other side, but the sum and 
substance of all I have said is that taking this out of the 
limitation — without attempting to make up now a so-and-so 
much for children's relief work, sanitation, rehabilitation, if 
we give five million dollars for Russian relief and nine million 
dollars in addition, it will not be an excessive amount. Would 
that it were ninety million, and we could afford to do it. We 
could afford to do it, we can afford to do it, we can afford to 
raise fourteen million dollars for this year, in this campaign, 
and we must not permit ourselves to say it cannot be done, 
because if we say it, it won't be done. It can be done. There 
is not a man here that has not suffered a shrinkage in his 
fortune during the past twelve or fifteen months; but what 
we still possess, the poorest of us, makes us a Croesus as 
compared with the people — even the wealthy people of other 
countries, who are now occupying our attention. We still have 
dollars, and the harder the times are the more we feel the 
pinch, or imagine that we feel the pinch, we can the better 
appreciate the situation of people who have nothing but pinch, 
pinch, pinch, hungry, diseased, of those persons whose lands 
were devastated during seven years. I think there is not a 
man here who came from abroad, there is not a man whose 

48 



parents came from abroad, who, if he will take stock, will not 
immediately say, "I am a brute if I do not make up my mind 
this year to do more than I ever did before." 

Now, I have made up a program which I hope will be 
fully discussed. It is a program we agreed upon last spring, 
when conditions were worse financially than they are today. 
I don't want to lay down a program to frighten people here; 
I don't want to have a program of fifty million dollars and pay 
fifty cents. I want a program that will be carried out to the 
letter. Nothing less than fourteen million dollars is required, 
and fourteen million dollars should be subscribed. Gentlemen, 
if we have ever worked in the past, it is understood that the 
Jews of this country have voluntarily agreed to come together 
in the City of Chicago to deal with this tremendous problem, 
with a desire to solve it and to perform their duty. 

Questions have been asked with regard to the way in 
which the Jews are treated in other countries. Let me say 
that as far as that is concerned, the condition of the Jews 
in other countries has improved vastly during the last two 
years, that it depends upon the Jews themselves to a great 
extent how much more improvement there can be. If we are 
able through this campaign to enable the Jews of those coun- 
tries to rehabilitate themselves, the Jew who has heretofore been 
a failure and an outcast will be regarded as the equal of every 
man in the country in which he lives, and the constitution of 
these countries, carrying out the principles laid down in the 
minority agreement adopted in Paris, recognize that principle 
of political economy which was never dreamed of ten years ago. 

Mr. Schiff was one of the greatest and one of the wisest 
and one of the most statesmenlike men of our people, and he 
said over and over again, not the last year, or five years or 
ten years, but twenty-five years ago, that the Jewish problem 
in Russia and in other countries must be solved in those 
countries and could not be done anywhere else. Let us help 
these people to solve their own problems. We must help them 
to become self-supporting and independent. They never were 
schnorrers; we must not be schnorrers. We must give the 
people the spirit of independence for which they yearn. 

Jews of America, the answer is to be given by you within 
the next few months as to whether or not that program shall 
be carried into effect. (Applause.) 

The Chairman: Are there any questions to be asked at 
this time? Is there any discussion to be had on the many 
pertinent questions presented by Mr. Marshall? 

Mr. Newburger: Mr. Chairman, I think that these men, 
so far as Mr. Marshall is concerned, need make no further 
ansvjrer. I think the presence of these gentlemen from the in- 
ception of our work are the very best affirmation of the very 
things of which he speaks, and I think the thing he has asked 

49 



us is the thing to do, to go forward in this campaign, to say 
in the presence of the conference, "The thing shall be done." 
Let that be the answer to Mr. Marshall. 

The Chairman: Any other comment at this time, or any 
questions? 

Mr. Ullman: Mr. Chairman, I think it wise to continue to 
hear our representatives who have recently returned from 
abroad. Each one of these speakers instills into our hearts and 
into our minds such inspiration that when we go back to our 
communities we shall be better able to convey to them the 
eloquent messages to which we have listened. I am in favor 
of cutting off debate and report; I am in favor of having the 
fullest light shed upon this terrible situation, so that every man 
who leaves can go back imbued with understanding, and in- 
spired with determination to throw his own weight and his 
own power into the solution of this problem. 

The Chairman: The Chair wanted some statement, and 
that seems to convey positively the suggestion that he wants 
to carry away with him the fullest possible information. If 
that is true, notice is served upon the following gentlemen to 
present their views on any phase of the problem which may 
occur to them, either at the session this afternoon or the 
session tomorrow morning: Mr. Frankel of Toronto, Mr. Ull- 
man, Mr. Morgenthau, Dr. Hirsch, Mr. Rosenfelt, and every 
other member of the conference that has anything to suggest 
which will shed light on the decision of this conference. 

A Delegate: I move that a committee be appointed 
by you, Mr. Chairman, to work out the sense of this confer- 
ence, so that we have an opportunity to work on some con- 
crete lines, and not feel we are working without a plan of 
action, for the time is short. 

The Chairman: It has been moved and seconded that the 
Chair appoint a committee to make concrete suggestions 
as to a working plan. All in favor of the motion signify it by 
saying "Aye." The Ayes have it and it is so ordered. Any 
other suggestions or motions at this time? 

Mr. Rosenthal: Mr. Chairman, I think we have already 
come to the most important part of this conference, that is, 
insofar as the delegates themselves are concerned. We believe 
that fourteen million dollars is not enough, and we believe that 
we ought to use every effort to raise that amount. We have 
gone that far, so we are sold. The problem now becomes one 
of selling the people who need to give the money. That is 
going to be just a little more difficult, because we will not have 
these inspiring reports, the inspiring address of Mr. Marshall, 
to help us. It does seem to me, however, we are going to need 

50 



to be prepared to answer every question. The public are going 
to say, "Why is the measure of the entire responsibility to be 
upon American Jews? Are there no Jews in England? Are there 
no Jews in France, giving a part of this fourteen million?" The 
next question that is going to be put up is about the stewardship 
of the money. We know the administration has been everything 
that could possibly be hoped for. We don't need any definite 
report of the distribution of the fund. We know that our admin- 
istrative expenses have been insignificant; all in touch with the 
administrative affairs know that they have not had what they 
ought to have at all, but we ought to be able to tell the world 
so they will know where the money has been going. We have 
this problem, not to sell to the 150 people who are here, but 
to thousands of them — we do not know whether they are all 
going to be Jews or not, and I presume one of the questions 
we have to determine is whether this campaign shall be non- 
sectarian if we have not already determined these things from 
the business end of getting this money together. I don't want 
to impress my views on the views of the committee. We 
seem to have outlined a program to carry us through tomor- 
row. For my part I would like to stay here tonight and get 
down to business, and know tonight — not tomorrow, when we 
may possibly have cooled down. I would like to get it settled 
if it takes until two o'clock in the morning, on the business 
end of it. We have here a good many among us who can 
qualify as experts — at least we think we can — on getting four- 
teen million dollars. Dr. Rosenberg is one of them. Mr. 
Becker — all of us have been sold on the humanitarian side, sold 
on the side of appeals to our hearts, sold on the side of ap- 
peals to our minds; we can tell how much money is going to 
be raised by pulling the heartstrings, how much is going to 
be raised by pulling the cold-blooded analytical mind of the 
Jew as to what he is to give himself. Let us get it tonight, 
and let us go home and start selling it to the other Jews of 
the country. 

The Chairman: Mr. Rosenthal suggests when conference 
reconvenes after dinner it remain in session until tomorrow 
morning. To that extent no program has been made. We 
have reserved today and tomorrow in case you desire to 
remain over. 

Mr. Rosenthal: Are we going to get a concrete program 
in line with the motion just made? 

The Chairman: The motion was that the Chair appoint a 
committee to present concrete suggestions if it has any. What 
is the pleasure of the conference? The Chair suggests that we 
take a recess until 6:30, at which hour we reconvene on the 
floor below for dinner. 

(Cries from the floor) : Appoint your committee. 

A Delegate: Mr. Chairman, was that motion carried ap- 
pointing a committee? 

51 



The Chairman: It was, sir. The Chair will now appoint 
the committee. It has been moved and seconded that the 
conference take a recess until 6:30, (Motion carried). The 
Chair will now name the committee. 

A Delegate: I offer an amendment to the question of the 
Conference Committee, that its report be the first order after 
recess — I mean after dinner. 

The Chairman: The following committee is appointed by 
the Chair, with authority in the hands of the Chairman to 
add such additional names as he desires : Mr. Warburg will 
be Chairman of the committee; Mr. Brown of Detroit, Mr. 
Harry Wolf of Omaha, Dr. Roper of Philadelphia, Mr. Fleisch- 
hacker of San Francisco, Mr. Schoenfeld of Seattle, Major Ull- 
man of Birmingham, and Mr. Leo Frankel of Toronto. If any 
names occur to Mr. Warburg which he desires added to this 
committee, if he will communicate with the Secretary the gen- 
tleman will be notified. It has been suggested that two addi- 
tional names be added, Mr. Rosenthal of Indianapolis and Mr. 
Eisemann of Cleveland. Mr. Billikopf of Philadelphia has been 
asked to work with the committee. His name will be added. 

A Delegate: Mr. Chairman, I think you neglected to name 
somebody from New England on that committee. 

The Chairman: Mr. Ratchesky of Boston and Mr. Rubens 
of Chicago. 

(Meeting breaks up informally.) 



52 



Session of Saturday 

September 24—8.15 P. M. 

The conference met pursuant to adjournment. 

The Chairman: The Chair desires to call your attention 
to the fact that the moving pictures which are about to be 
shown are submitted for your consideration. Your determina- 
tion will be asked at a future hour as to whether or not you 
consider these pictures of value in the campaign which shall 
be launched for further funds. The title of the picture is 
"Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow." It undertakes to show 
conditions as they have existed since the war, as they exist 
today, and also to represent the hopes and the ambition of 
the Joint Distribution Committee. We ask your kind consid- 
eration and expression after the pictures have been shown. 

(Picture shown upon screen.) 

The Chairman: Mr. Billikopf is a man who has the ability 
to raise the funds and also the ability to spend money. I want 
to present to you at this hour Mr. Jacob Billikopf, of Phila- 
delphia, and ask him to say a few words to the conference. 

Mr. Billikopf: I should like to begin these rather desul- 
tory remarks by calling attention to the unique appropriateness 
of holding in Chicago this conference — the 
first national meeting of the American Jewish 
relief Committee held since that memorable 
conference at the Hotel Savoy, in New York, 
in April, 1917. True, New York sounded the 
call; New York was the workshop; New 
York was the distributing agency; but Chi- 
cago was the dynamo that drove the great 
machinery of which we, who are gathered 
here, were integral parts. 

Chicago gave an even greater contribu- 
tion than this — it gave its greatest contribution 
in the shape of a man who rose magnificently to the tremen- 
dous occasion, to the great emergency. Chicago gave to this 
work Julius Rosenwald, who led the way, who set the pace, 
who, by his own example, showed American Jewry its real 
responsibility and real duty. (Applause.) 

Touching on the purposes of this conference, which was 
called "to determine the advisability of conducting a national 
fund-raising campaign," it is not for me to pose as an author- 
ity. I do not claim authority on this or any other subject. 
But I want your permission, as one who has spent three 

53 




months in Galicia, Lithuania and Congress Poland, as a com- 
missioner of the Joint Distribution Committee, to say that my 
own experiences corroborate the observations and the recom- 
mendations contained in the reports submitted to you this 
afternoon. 

Mr. Warburg reports that while in all of Europe, with 
the exception of Russia, which is now happily open to our 
ministrations, the need for immediate relief as a result of the 
war has practically disappeared, yet there is still need for 
child-caring work, for medical work, for loans, for refugee 
work. This means, notwithstanding all that has been done, 
notwithstanding all that the stricken Jewish communities of 
Europe are now able to do for themselves, that our work is 
not at an end. Just one more chapter has ended. A new 
chapter begins now. For, so long as there are 60,000 Jewish 
orphans, our work cannot and dare not be ended. 

What is to be done? I am aware that on all sides we 
hear that times are hard. Depression is abroad in the land. 
We are told that the people cannot give — that they are tired of 
giving. I do not believe either statement. I believe that the 
people are ready to give, the people are willing to give, if only 
we can make them understand, if only we can make them see 
that there is still a great, and perhaps an even greater, need to 
give now that we have entered upon the reconstructive phase 
of the task — reconstruction, plus the care of 60,000 orphans. 

But how? How can we make them understand? How 
can we make them see? I wish it were within my power to 
make some original contribution to this discussion. Perhaps 
someone may be able to do this during the course of the con- 
ference. All that I can do is merely to repeat some of the 
suggestions that I have made already and, in particular, one 
that I made early this year. In January I wrote to Mr. 
Marshall, Chairman of the American Jewish Relief Committee, 
reiterating what I first suggested a year prior to that — namely, 
that the American Jewish Relief Committee should send to 
Europe a commission — not a commission of social workers, 
valuable as such a commission would be, but a commission 
composed of from 25 to 50 of the leading Jewish business men 
of America, representing every section of the country. I men- 
tioned men of the type of David A. Brown of Detroit, Nat 
Stone of Milwaukee, Mortimer Fleischhacker and Morgan 
Gunst of San Francisco, Charles Eiseman and Paul Feiss of 
Cleveland, Sidney Pritz of Cincinnati, Julius Rosen wald, 
Charles Rubens, Abel Davis and Max Epstein of Chicago, 
Aaron Waldheim and David Somers of St. Louis, Jacob New- 
man of New Orleans, Isaac Ullman of New Haven, Louis 
Kirstein and Capt. Ratchesky of Boston, Felix Fuld of New- 
ark, Col. Fred Levy of Louisville, Lee Loventhal of Nashville, 
Sigmund Eisner of Red Bank, Albert Rosenthal and Sol Kiser 
of Indianapolis, Julius Levy and Jacob Epstein of Baltimore, 
Samuel Fels, Jules Mastbaum and Jacob D. Lit of Philadel- 

54 



phia, Ben Selling of Portland, Moe Levy of Norfolk, David 
Snellenburg of Wilmington, J. K. Hexter of Dallas, V. Kriegs- 
haber of Atlanta, Leopold Adler of Savannah, Irvin F. Leh- 
man, A. Sunstein and I. W. Frank of Pittsburgh, Herbert Leh- 
man, Paul Baerwald and Samuel Lamport of New York. I 
named, as you see, men who are prominent not only in their own 
immediate communities, but in all of the territory of which their 
cities are the centre. I named men who have accomplished not- 
able things in various fields of industrial and financial organiza- 
tion, and who are leaders in the affairs of their own communities, 
and who have been prominently identified with our fund-raising 
efforts. I argued then, as I argue now, that these men, having 
gone and having seen, would return to conquer — to win, each 
in his own community. I want to repeat this suggestion to- 
day. I still advocate the sending of such a commission, but I 
want to amplify my original thought by adding that such a 
commission, so conspicuous in its personnel, need not wait to 
return in order to report. By a carefully devised plan of 
day-to-day cables and letters, publicity would be given to the 
observations of this commission through at least a thousand 
persons prominent in the Jewish communities of America, who 
would, in turn, impart these observations, through public 
channels, to the people of their communities, and thus to the 
people as a whole. In this manner the seemingly stale and 
unprofitable work of fund-raising for European relief could be 
revitalized and redramatized. Against this method the cry of 
"Depression" and the cry "The people are tired of giving" 
would be silenced. 

Is there any doubt in your mind as to the impelling force 
of personal observation? I refer to James Becker, for whose 
extraordinary work in the war-stricken lands I cannot express 
myself too enthusiastically. He returned to Chicago, inspired 
by a divine impatience with our lagging efforts, and with this 
impatience as a motivating force, through his insistence that 
the work must go on with renewed energy, he inspired his 
associates to invite us to this conference. Every man of the 
type whom I have described would be another James Becker. 
His letters, his cables, his impatience to secure immediate and 
effective results, would lash each community into new, more 
vigorous and even more successful effort. 

I advocate sending such a commission, but I do not advo- 
cate waiting for its return, nor do I even advocate waiting for 
its cables or its letters. These would be supplemental. I 
advocate a new and immediate drive as the first and the im- 
perative task that is before us. I know that the words "drive" 
and "campaign" have become odious — that they cause our flesh 
to shrivel when v/e think of them, but whether they are 
odious or not, there are 60,000 Jewish orphans who, without 
us, will die! Are you deluding yourself with the thought that 
the recently devised plan of financial adoption will solve the 

55 



orphan problem? The plan is good so far as it goes, but how 
far does it go? The richest among you, the richest in your 
respective communities — how many can you adopt? Ten or- 
phans — fifty orphans — a hundred orphans — at $60 a year each. 
Figure that up! And for how many years? Have you thought 
of that? Don't you realize that financial adoption is not the 
solution? That it is a temporary palliative, at best? Don't 
you see that we must deal with the orphan problem in its 
entirety and in a manner that will actually solve it? 

How? Who knows any other method than that of the 
drive? Who has a plan to substitute for the one that involves 
so much shoe leather, which calls for going from door to door, 
from ofBce to office, for clutching at coat-lapels, for setting 
again into operation all of that campaign machinery with 
which we are so familiar? 

But, I hear you say, the times are not propitious. Was 
there ever a time that was propitious? Haven't we heard this 
same pessimistic refrain always? Do you know of any time 
when people came forward spontaneously, of their own accord, 
and said: "We will give; we will get others to give?" Haven't 
we always had to motivate the communities and incite them 
to give, and hasn't it always, even during war-time prosperity 
period, been our major task to make people willing to give, 
willing to get others to give? 

To be sure, if it was so difficult to accomplish this in the 
good times, it is going to be more difficult now. But it must 
be done. More than that, you who are here are the men 
who have so successfully accomplished this task, and you are 
the very men who must do it now. And you can — if you only 
make up your mind to do it. 

Hard times? In the first place, conditions are improving. 
Men who ought to know say so. But even if they are not, 
are we not infinitely better off, all of us, the humblest in 
American Jewry, than our people in Middle Europe — than our 
people in Russia? Let those who are talking of hard times 
consider what the times are over there. 

I say it can be done, and done right now! All that it 
needs is the determination to do it. Let the right people de- 
termine it. Let the right people determine that there must be 
a campaign and there will be a campaign — and it will succeed. 
Perhaps the "going" will be hard, therefore we may have to 
drive harder. But we must drive. My experience at one time 
or another, with 1,500 Jewish communities in this country, has 
given me the profound conviction that if any four or five 
leaders in a given community — two or three in some, a few 
more in others — resolve to do anything and undertake this 
thing with enthusiasm, with the determination to succeed — 
the proposition can be put across. If Mr. Warburg could 
divide himself into a number of parts or be in a large number 

56 



of communities at the same time, his enthusiasm, his earnest- 
ness, based on what he himself has seen, would be sufficient 
to put across a campaign for any amount of money. But, of 
course, Mr. Warburg cannot do that. Therefore each one of 
you must do it, each in his own community. It takes only a 
few men, the right men, to determine that this thing shall be 
done, and it will be done. It doesn't matter where — in Kansas 
City, in Chicago, in Des Moines, in Detroit, in Philadelphia. 
Don't you know that this happened in 1917, 1918, 1919 and 
1920? The initiative was taken by one, two, three of you, and 
with your stimulus the movement gained momentum in your 
communities and swung to success. Why, right in my own 
city of Philadelphia we raised $250,000 last May to cover a 
deficit in the Federation. Some of the men who were most 
active in this campaign are here at this conference, and they 
will bear me out when I tell you that we were up against the 
usual cry: "This is not the time." Everybody predicted fail- 
ure — everybody, that is, except those who determined that it 
should succeed. What happened? On the closing of the cam- 
paign Mr. Ellis Gimbel got up and said: "Had our quota been 
$500,000, instead of a quarter million, we would have raised 
that amount just as easily." 

At this very moment, while we are here, a campaign is 
being projected in Philadelphia to raise $750,000 for a Y. M.- 
Y. W. H. A. — for a community centre. What is responsible 
for this campaign? Not the spontaneous enthusiasm of the 
community, I can assure you, but the determination of Dr. 
Cyrus Adler, of Albert Greenfield, of Jules Mastbaum, who 
are here, and a few others, that the thing must be done now. 

During the past year half a million dollars was raised for 
a Y. M. H. A. in Pittsburgh, largely because one man, Irvin 
F. Lehman, aided by four or five others, said it can and must 
be done. In Newark that outstanding personality, Felix Fuld, 
said it can and must be done, and $500,000 was raised, under 
seemingly hopeless conditions, for a Y. M. H. A. In Balti- 
more, during the past eight months, the Federation doubled its 
contribution. In Texas, which was in a dreadful frame of 
mind because cotton had slumped, $250,000 was raised for war 
relief. All because they had adopted the slogan: "It can be 
done." I am convinced that it can be done, even in New York. 
I know the difficulties of that community. It is heterogeneous; 
it lacks organization. I know how hard it is to arouse senti- 
ment there, because of the vast distances involved — of the com- 
plex, disunited, and often antagonistic groups that constitute 
New York's Jewry; because so many of its resources are hid- 
den and seemingly inaccessible and therefore remain untapped. 
Nevertheless, though it is in a class by itself, though it is sui 
generis, it can be done in New York, too. I maintain that if 
ten men — and you know the men I have in mind — should meet 
day after tomorrow for lunch at the Bankers' Club, and deter- 
mine to have a campaign for I don't care how large an amount 

57 



of money, and I don't care for what purpose, there will be a 
campaign and it will succeed. Why, I recall that when the 
first great campaign for war relief was projected in New York 
in 1917, there was a wild outcry: "Times are not ripe. We 
have just entered the great conflict; the war demands come 
first." Nevertheless, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, moved to the core 
of his great soul by the dire need of our people abroad, deter- 
mined otherwise, and because of his determination and the 
determination of the small cabinet of five or six men, headed 
by David Brown, with whom he surrounded himself, there 
was a campaign, and I need not tell you how well it succeeded. 

It all comes down to this : We may accept it as axiomatic 
that people do not and will not give just because the need 
exists. There never has been a time when, speaking of them 
as a whole, the people have given of their own volition. They 
must be driven into giving. And your experience is, as my 
experience is, that as a campaign progresses, as sentiment is 
created and organized, many — I might say most — of those who 
opposed it at the outset have climbed aboard the band wagon. 
It has been my experience, as it has been your experience, that 
people whom we did not count on at all at the beginning have 
come forward during the heat of the campaign, deeply resent- 
ful because they were "ignored," because they were not asked 
to serve and not asked to give. 

Let me summarize: I suggest the sending abroad of a 
commission of leading personalities from every section of the 
land; that this commission be fortified in this country with a 
host of correspondents, with whom they shall keep in constant 
communication; that this commission cable back reports of 
their observations; that they keep the wires hot and the mails 
heavy with recommendations, with appeals, and that we begin 
at once a new and a tremendous campaign for reconstruction 
and for the care of 60,000 orphans. Let us determine that it 
can be done. Let us go back to our communities with that 
determination and with some of that divine impatience that I 
have mentioned. Let us go back with the conviction that 
this thing must be done — that it can be done. And it WILL 
be done! 

That achievement needs, however, the leadership of a dyna- 
mic personality — a personality of such force and magnetism that 
it will put new enthusiasm, new fire and energy into our cam- 
paigns throughout the country. That personality exists and is 
here today. I need not tell you anything about David A. Brown, 
of Detroit. You all know what a tremendous impetus his lead- 
ership would be to our campaign. We must somehow secure his 
services at the head of this effort. With him in charge success is 
inevitable. His example and his irresistible enthusiasm will 
carry our undertaking through to a triumphant conclusion. 
(Applause.) 

The Chairman: Whether the members of the conference 
agree or disagree with the suggestions made by Mr. Billikopf, 

58 




DAVID A. BROWN 

"You have given your solemn pledge that your 
efforts will be tireless and your help without stint. 
With such enthusiasm, coupled with the full realiza- 
tion of the tremendous need in Europe, I am con- 
fident of the success of our $14,000,000 Appeal." 




the Chair takes the Hberty of commenting upon the fact that 
Mr. Billikopf generally and tonight deals with concrete pro- 
posals and concrete suggestions, and he particularly suggested 
the value of getting the human power, human mind and hu- 
man heart back of our determinations, and a human line of 
conduct. I want to call now upon Doctor Nathan Krass, who 
has always been ready to give his heart and his time and his 
energy to the work in which we are engaged. Won't you 
speak to us now, Dr. Krass? 

Dr. Nathan Krass: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — 
To speak at this late hour, after you have been surfeited with 
the rich variety of reports and have had pic- 
tures of European suffering in European , 
homes graphically portrayed to you, not only 
by word of mouth but by the moving picture, >;- 

might make my message seem more or less ^ 
superfluous; yet I came a long way to Chi- " .'- 
cago — all the way from Eastern Europe — so 
perhaps you will pardon me if I speak more 
than the ten minutes about which so much 
has been said. ^ 



In the first place, I want to offer my per- 
sonal felicitations to the City of Chicago's 
Jewry, because Chicago Jewry, with all due respect to my own 
city, for size, for enthusiasm and for results, has achieved a most 
marvelous influence in the past few years with reference to that 
very war relief which every one of us is so heartily interested in. 
I do not want to single out individuals. They have been many, 
so that if I were to utter them one might believe that I was 
reading out of the catalogue of Sears, Roebuck & Company. 
(Laughter.) But I do feel, even though I am a preacher, that 
it is much better to say a few truthful things while a man is 
still alive than a great many things after he is dead, and I 
believe that it is perfectly proper and absolutely fair, not only 
to say but to reiterate it, when a man has done great work, 
because that is his medium of appreciation and that is his 
reward, though he does not seek it. I know, because I have 
traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific in this country, 
what the value was of the dynamic personality and the re- 
markable stimulus of your great Jew in Chicago, Julius Rosen- 
wald. (Applause.) It is not only that he is a rich man; it 
is not only that he gave a large sum of money, but all over 
the land everybody knows how he gave it, that he gave it with 
his heart as well as with his hand. 

I traveled through Roumania with that charming young 
man of Chicago about whom so many pretty things have 
been said today. I saw him as he lifted those little, dirty 
children and kissed them and hugged them to his bosom; I 
saw him as he wandered from village to village, with great 
interest, his heart in the work; I saw him as he labored most 

60 



zealously in typhus-ridden districts, risking his life, risking the 
future that was promised him by his environment in Chicago, 
risking everything, because he felt that he owed it to his Jewish 
brethren abroad, as an American Jew, reared in America, 
trained in American energy, to give all his mind and his heart 
and his personality for those sufferers over there, and Jimmie 
Becker stands as a splendid example to Chicago, to the entire 
land, to all those who are Jews in America, to give themselves 
to relief work, to service on behalf of Judaism and on behalf of 
Israel. If I were more orthodox than I am I perhaps would 
persuade myself to indulge in a long series of Mi Shebarachs, 
and I might say many words of praise for our Chairman, for 
Judge Fisher and others in Chicago who have done most mar- 
velous work in this cause. Because of their service, Chicago is 
the proper place for this meeting, the first in seven years, in 
which we are to review the full-grown enthusiasm of American 
Israel on behalf of their forlorn brethren across the sea. 

I may speak of myself without any immodesty, geographi- 
cally, only geographically. I have crossed the ocean a number 
of times in the interest of the Joint Distribution Committee. I 
have traveled all through America, and therefore geograph- 
ically I have trained myself to see both sides of the problem. 
I see it from Europe; I see it from America. I see it through 
your eyes; I saw it through the eyes of our brethren over 
yonder. I am glad that I was in Europe this year, because so 
many of our rich Jews of America were tourists this year. I 
met them in Carlsbad, I met them in Marienbad; they were 
everywhere, and everywhere they grumbled because they saw 
in so many of those summer resorts the Jews of Europe living in 
the hotels and enjoying themselves and they came to the rapid 
conclusion that because these few Jews, the thousand they saw 
in Carlsbad, and the eight hundred they saw in Marienbad and 
the five hundred in Wiesbaden, who through the decline in 
exchange value could translate their lei and their lire into 
large quantities of money in Czecho-Slovakia and in Germany — 
these American Jewish tourists have come to the conclusion 
that all the Jews in Europe are rich and have grown prosper- 
ous and therefore we need no longer help them, but that we 
should let them help, let them take the burden from our shoul- 
ders. I am glad that I was over there this year, because I 
saw not only those Jews of means in the European hotels, but 
I saw what you saw tonight upon this screen. I saw orphan 
asylum after orphan asylum, I saw misery after misery in 
those lands that I visited, and yet I am happy to tell you that 
the misery I saw last year was less than the misery I saw^ two 
years ago. The misery I saw then was less than the misery 
that existed prior to that time, and the misery in Europe now 
is less than the misery in Europe a year ago, and that is my 
answer to you who ask me, "What have we done with our 
$47,000,000?" You say: "Give us an accurate account; give us 
statistics; give us the names of every child you helped; give us 

61 



every locale; give us sheets and sheets of paper filled with 
statistics and we will be convinced." You should have faith 
and you should have confidence in the men that you have sent 
over there, in the men, your men, who sacrificed not only 
checks but themselves, men like Dr. Peiser, who contracted 
incipient tuberculosis; Peiser, who slept in box cars, who froze 
in Poland, who shivered for hours and hours at stations, and 
who traveled into disease-ridden districts, who is now a con- 
valescent in Switzerland. Bogen, whom God has spared by 
Divine miracle. Where was he not, and where was not this 
one and the other one, men who gave their energies, their 
souls and their bodies? I say to you: "Have confidence in 
those men." We, the Joint Distribution Committee, did a good 
piece of work. We made mistakes over there. Our organ- 
ization was not perfect. You will hear complaints here and 
you will hear complaints yonder, but I challenge you or any- 
body else to show me a perfect organization. I challenge you 
or anybody else to show me the Red Cross or the American 
Relief or the United States Government itself to be flawless in 
its machinery, perfect in all its details. What I plead for to- 
night is a broad and tolerant spirit, and believe me when I 
tell you that the great bulk of our money, of those $47,000,000 
that were collected, was spent most judiciously, most advisedly 
and in the best business manner, and that the work that the 
Joint Distribution Committee achieved in Europe is absolutely 
marvelous — it is colossal in its magnitude, it is deep in its 
intensity and it is unique in its width, stirring in its spirit and 
long in its compass. That is what we have accomplshed. Dur- 
ing the sessions you may ply us with questions. You may not 
say as you hear from Bjalistock to Brest Litovsk that this was 
not done right and that was not done right. You will hear com- 
plaints, but on the whole we have achieved much, and you can 
go back to every one of your communities and tell them that 
the work that the Joint Distribution Committee did in Europe 
was a work that was worthy and a work that they must con- 
tinue to support today as well as yesterday, today and also 
tomorrow. 

I am not going to harrow your hearts; I am not going to 
bruise your souls with pictures of horror, I am not going to 
tell you of all of those hospitals and asylums and orphanages 
that I saw, but I do want to tell you that we are on the road 
now toward doing a good bit of constructive work and I do 
want to tell you what perhaps you do not grasp sufficiently, 
that the European Jews who have earned some money, that 
the European Jews that are considered rich, are doing their 
share now, and they are going to do it tomorrow. Because of 
our soup kitchens and of our milk stations every bit of the 
palliative relief work in most countries where we used to 
do palliative relief work is being taken over by the local 
communities, so that the rich Jews of Austria, of Budapest, 
the Jews of Vienna, are going to take care of this emergency 

62 



work now and they are doing their share, and as the days roll 
on they are going to do more and more. What then can we 
do? I will tell you what we will do: Chicago has its own 
poor and Chicago has a federation that cares for its own poor. 
Let us imagine that suddenly there is an influx into Chicago of 
the Jews from San Francisco, from Pittsburgh, from New 
Orleans, and that they are all refugees, all homeless and naked 
and hungry. Chicago cannot say, "We must take care af 
these." These are not the brethren exclusively of Chicago; 
they are our brethren. Supplies from all quarters would be 
rushed to the relief of these extra people who came crying for 
succor in Chicago. That is just what is happening in Europe. 
When the city of Vienna or Bucharest becomes flooded with 
refugees from Galicia, who are driven out by anti-Semitism, 
by pogroms, by terrors, the Jews that are living in Vienna and 
Budapest cannot say: "We are going to take care of them." 
They are your brethren. It becomes not a local problem but a 
world problem. It becomes the problem of Europe and America. 
The refugee Jew in Vienna is not a local problem, but he 
belongs to all Jewry and the Jew who is in the be?t position 
to help today is, after all, American Israel. If I know the 
American Jew I know of his depression, I know of the barom- 
eter on Wall Street, I know the barometer on Broadway, but 
with all I know that the storm has not destroyed the commer- 
cial prosperity of the whole of American Israel, and I know 
that my rich friends of last year in San Francisco are not 
applying to the United Hebrew Charities this year, (laughter) 
and I know it is the same in St. Louis and in Chicago and 
everywhere else, though I also know that a few have suffered; 
a few who gave us $15,000 to $20,000 two years ago cannot 
give us $50 this year. I know those conditions, and with it all 
I know that on the whole American Israel is prepared to deal 
with those great problems over there, and that American 
Israel ought to come to the front and we dare not say today 
that we are tired of giving. 

I need not rehearse for you the various problems of the 
refugees, of the orphans, of the sick, of those that need sanita- 
tion. I was asked this afternoon: Is sanitation a Jewish 
problem? Are there Jewish disinfectants as distinguished from 
non-Jewish disinfectants? Let me give you one instance: 
When I was in Roumania the Rabbi in the community of 
Fociani said to us with tears in his eyes: "Send us baths, be- 
cause when the armies overran us we had two big public baths 
and one was destroyed, and they will not permit Jews to go to 
the other public bath, and unless we have facilities I am afraid 
that our people will be wiped away by epidemic." And if the 
others are not far-sighted enough to know that a Jewish epidemic 
is a general epidemic we must come to the rescue. And, fur- 
thermore, you must remember that there are whole districts, 
whole cities, whole villages, where the great bulk of the popula- 
tion is Jewish and where it becomes a bounden duty for us to go 

63 



witli our sanitation and help our brethren. These are all prob- 
lems. Another great problem, one of the greatest of all — you 
saw that picture — is to teach the boys to sew, to make shoes. 
Formerly a shoemaker took in two or three apprentices and 
boarded them. That shoemaker today hardly makes a living, 
and he cannot board any apprentices, and what becomes of 
them unless you give them soup in the soup kitchens and 
bread in the bread line? Will you let them loaf; will you let 
them run around idle, with no prospects for the future? They 
must be taught to be shoemakers, tailors, glaziers, and we 
must have them learn trades. We have got to teach them 
trades in the trade schools. We have got to have co-operatives 
and we must build them up, and that is our task today. 
Therefore, having saved them from starvation we must now do 
all of this. Are you going to let them wander around without 
the prospect of a bright future? That is a great question, and I 
want every one of you delegates to go back to your communi- 
ties enheartened and with spirit. I know why you came here 
and you have got to take back a radiant, a fervent, a vibrant 
and a holy spirit. We are fast approaching our holy days. In 
every synagogue, in every community in the United States, at 
least once a year the Jews are going to assemble; you are 
going to pray to God, you are going to listen to the sacred 
music, you are going to hear the Rabbis preach to you on 
righteousness, on prayer, on atonement, on your duty to your 
fellow-man and to your God, and if, perchance, your Rabbi is 
eloquent, you will say, "Isn't he wonderful? Was he not 
marvelous?" I would say to you, in all seriousness, that our 
holy day season is the day of the searching of the human 
heart, that all your prayers and all your preachment and all 
your service is not worthy in the eyes of God or in the eyes 
of man unless that service means for you a human service, 
unless it means that you are going to translate into human 
conduct the lofty ideals of our Jewish liturgy, the wonderful 
aspirations of our Jewish sages and the marvelous messages 
of our great Jewish prophets and teachers and moralists, all 
through the ages. A successful Yom Kippur then will result 
when every Jewish community says: "We are resolved to say 
no more 'we are tired of giving,' but we will resolve to go 
out into other communities and elicit from other Jews their 
response which is needed in order to save our brethren yonder. 
We must lead them towards that new life, which is a life of 
light and hope, a life where none shall make them afraid." In 
the words of the Talmud, "Fill yourselves first with an en- 
thusiasm for the cause, and you will then be able to fill others 
with enthusiasm." Go home to your community saying : "We 
are going to do this job. A paltry sum is asked of us. We are 
going to do it with all our heart. We cannot say to ourselves, 
'We will fail.' We are convinced we must succeed." If you 
go out filled with that enthusiasm you will fill your communi- 
ties with enthusiasm, and God, whom you will invoke on these 

64 



sacred days, God, who has been our guardian through the 
ages, will bless you, and through you, our brethren who still 
need us across the mighty sea, and whose holy day you can 
crown with noble aspiration and the highest hope. (Prolonged 
applause.) 

The Chairman: Gentlemen of the Conference— Mr. Felix 
Warburg, the Chairman of the Committee on Plan and Scope, 
has a report to make. 

Mr. Warburg: As you know, the committee did not have 
time for a conference in which justice could be done to all the 
questions to which you will want to give consideration. We 
have made this preliminary report which gives you an idea of 
what was in our minds. It is by no means final, either m 
shape or in conclusions. I hope, according to the ruling of the 
Chair, that you will find time to give us your valuable sug- 
gestions. 

Mr. Warburg thereupon read the following: 

THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PLAN AND SCOPE 
OF THE CONFERENCE 

Saturday, September 24, 1921. 
At a meeting of the Committee on Plan and Scope of the Confer- 
ence, the following were present: Messrs. Warburg, Brown, Wolf, 
Adler, Fleischhacker, Ullman, Frankel, Billikopf, Rosenthal, Ratchesky, 
Rubens, Schoenfeld, Lehman, Darman and Eiseman. 
Mr. Felix Warburg, Chairman, presided. 

1. It was decided that the campaign was to be held. 

2. The date of the said campaign is to be between now and 
March 1st, and each city is to get into communication with Mr. Henry 
H. Rosenfelt without delay, so that the dates may not collide. 

3. It was suggested at this meeting that fourteen million dollars 
should be set aside as the quota to be raised, and that the tentative 
division of the fourteen million dollars should be as follows: 

Five million for Russia. 

Two and one-half million for Economic Rehabilitation. 

Five hundred thousand for cultural work. 

Three and one-half million for child care outside of Russia. 

One and one-half miUion for Repatriation. 

One million for medical relief. 

4. The question as to whether the drive should be Jewish or non- 
sectarian came up for discussion, and it was decided that this question 
should be left to each community to decide for itself. , , , , , 

5. The question of a quota for each community should be agreed 
upon between the director and the different communities. 

6. The question of a slogan is to be left to the Pubhcity Com- 
mittee, of which Mr. Henry H. Rosenfelt is one, and suggestions are 
invited from the floor. . 

7. In the communities where there are war chests an immediate 
effort is to be made to secure pledges from the Peoples' and Central 
Committees that no separate appeals should be made. 

8. It was decided that the question of using some of the material 
furnished by the speeches in this conference be left to the Publicity 
Committee to use in such form as they deem wise. 

9. It has been suggested that a statement be gotten up for cam- 
paign purposes showing the total amount raised since the inception of 
the work and the very small amount it has cost to raise this money, 
also showing in which countries the main amounts have been spent. 

There being no further discussions, the meeting adjourned. 

65 



Mr. Warburg: Those were matters which received con- 
sideration. If I may, I move the adoption of this report, 
simply to bring it up for discussion. 

The Chairman : The question before the house is the 
adoption of the report presented by the Chairman of the 
Committee on Plan and Scope. What is your pleasure? 

Motion of Mr, Warburg to accept the report seconded. 

Mr. Seelenf reund : If I listened correctly to the report of 
Mr. Warburg he is forgetting, in my humble opinion, a most 
important part, in view of the conditions that have prevailed in 
Europe, and that is the educational part. 

The Chairman: Will you permit the Chair to read that 
part of the report which calls for an appropriation of $500,000 
for cultural work? 

Mr. Seelenfreund : I want to speak on something further. 
I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that $500,000 is a very small 
sum for cultural work. 

The Chairman: Pardon me, my friend, if you will. The 
Chairman would suggest that in acting on the motion of the 
chairman of the committee to adopt the report we consider 
each one of the suggestions separately, taking them up in nu- 
merical order. Does that meet with the consent of the con- 
ference? 

Mr. Guinzburg: I want to amend that motion, because I 
don't believe that one-half of the people here can understand 
the report without reading it. My amendment would be that 
this report be received and a copy be given to every one of 
the delegates tomorrow morning, so that they can thoroughly 
study it and then know what they want to do. 

Amendment seconded. 

Mr. Guinzburg: I don't believe there are twenty men on 
this floor who know what is in that report. The propositions 
are submitted; they are of a great deal of importance. I think 
a copy should be made and given to each one the first thing 
in the morning and then the matter can come up for discus- 
sion, but it would be too late tonight. 

The Chairman: If the Chair may be allowed, the sugges- 
tion of Col. Guinzburg will be put into execution and each 
member of the conference will receive a mimeographed report. 
At the same time there is not any reason why we cannot dis- 
pose of some of the work, of at least one or two of the 
matters, if it is agreeable to tKe Conference, before adjourn- 
ment. The Chair will suggest that the conference take up the 
first recommendation of the report, and that is: 

"1. It was decided that the campaign is to be held." 

Is there any objection to that plan, that a campaign be 
launched for the purpose of raising the necessary funds to 
carry out the work of the J. D. C. for the coming year? Is 
there any discussion? On this question, Mr. Morgenthau, I 
would like to hear a word from you. (Applause.) 

66 




Mr. Morgenthau: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — 

Dr. Krass disobeyed your orders and spoke more than ten 

minutes. I do not intend to disobey them in 

_. that respect, but I should prefer to speak on 

another part of your report, if you will allow 
me, and I would like to say this, my friends: 
that I think it is very unwise for us to adopt 
a definite budget tonight, or at any time, 
until we know how things shape themselves 
in Europe. Furthermore, we don't want to 
adopt a definite budget until we know how 
much money we are going to raise, although 
I agree with Mr. Marshall and some of the 
other speakers that we will have to raise 
this money; wherefore, I think we ought to devote the rest of 
our time to positively forming plans as to how we shall go 
about raising the needed funds. We are all agreed, every one 
of us — those of us who have been in Europe know it a little 
better — but everybody is agreed that this work has to go on. 
I came out here to listen more than to speak, but I felt it 
imperative to come out here to represent in a way those poor 
Jews who gave me that message two years ago in Poland, 
that we should not forsake them in their dire need and distress. 
You have heard enough of this. I think it is not enough for 
us to know how we are going to spend this money — to raise 
it, that is the great thing. I want to say that one of the things 
to do is to get some dynamic force at the head of the entire 
matter. A number of us, and I include myself in that number, 
a number of us who are able to reach the public should volun- 
teer to assist the cities that need help, to come out there and 
speak for them. I believe that this thing can be driven home 
to the American Jews. I don't care what eloquence is used or 
what arguments are used. The Jews of this country are ready 
to respond to the appeal. We have felt it and we have heard 
it from those who have talked here to us today. We have 
got to go about it, and we poor New Yorkers, who have got to 
go through the city, have the hardest task. You men can 
reach your people much better than we can. I feel that we 
New Yorkers are going to do our duty. I shall not underwrite 
it, but I shall do my share to induce New York to outshine 
Chicago, if it is possible. (Applause.) 

I have listened with a great deal of attention to Mr. Billi- 
kopf's proposition of a commission. If it were not so late, and 
if I did not have in mind that ten minutes limitation, and if I 
were not aware that there are others who are to speak, I 
would enter into a discussion of that proposal, but I think that 
it can be left to some of us to try and arrange it. I simply 
want to say this, that I am willing to be one of ten, or five, or 
twenty, that will pay the expenses of such a commission, be- 
cause I think it is highly essential that it be sent out there. 
(Applause.) After I was in Poland in my report I made that 

67 



recommendation. You have no conception what an amount 
of information these different friends of ours who have been 
out there have brought back. 

Now, my friends, if such a commission were appointed and 
if they would appeal to American Jewry for men who would 
do the same things for other towns, you would see a tremen- 
dous change in Poland. But all I want to say is this: If you 
can carry home good men like those who have spoken here 
today to help you out in your various cities, we are going to 
raise the fourteen million dollars. (Applause.) 

Mrs. Israel Cowen: I want to take just a moment, 
Mr. Chairman, since there may not be an opportunity later. 
I think there should be a word interjected here — it is very 
evident that the organization has recognized the women by 
asking the National Council of Jewish Women to be rep- 
resented here. I have the honor to represent the National 
Council of Jewish Women here, and the only word I wish to 
say is that, if such a commission is appointed, will you not 
consider the appointment of at least one woman? I did not 
hear in Mr. Billikopf's speech any woman mentioned, but inas- 
much as you are recognizing the women, may I suggest that 
you do it in this way? We would like to be represented on 
that commission. (Applause.) 

The Chairman: I take it, Mrs. Cowen, that this confer- 
ence may take it for granted that the National Council of 
Jewish Women can be counted on, if we decided to launch a 
campaign. 

Mrs. Israel Cowen: You may be absolutely certain of the 
co-operation of the National Council of Jewish Women. (Ap- 
plause), There are 45,000 Jewish women in this country and 
in Canada in the National Council, and we hope that you will 
also recognize us a bit further, as it is evidently your inten- 
tion to do. 

The Chairman: Thank you. The recommendation before 
the house is the first made by the committee, that a campaign 
be launched throughout the United States. Are you ready for 
the question? 

(Cries of "Question.") 

The Chairman: A good, kind friend has sent up a memor- 
andum saying that the decision of this question should not be 
attempted until we hear a word from Judge Fisher on the 
question. (Applause.) 



68 



Judge Fisher: Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen — 
This convention reminds me of the man who became so 

fatigued by his work that he fell asleep, and 
t^^^^^oK^^m t^^^ was suddenly awakened, finding himself 
■HEH^^HH with much work still unfinished. It seemed 
Pl^^^ ^^3 *° "^^ ^^^ ^ while that the Jews of America 
f ^B did fall asleep, and I was wondering whether 

[ ^? they would awaken. I feel that not only 

I I Chicago Jews, but the Jews of America, have 

||[^m^ |J much cause for congratulation that this con- 

Hh^L^ ^ ference was called, and I am quite certain 
^^H^^ ^ that the things you have heard and will hear 

^^^KBm^^.^. will so awaken you that you will go back to 

your community and without difficulty accom- 
plish that which you undertake. You have always done it in 
the past. You will do it now. 

There is only one thing that I was somewhat disappointed 
with as I listened to the reports. It seemed to me that these 
reports conveyed the impression that all that the Joint Dis- 
tribution Committee did was to give palliative relief in Europe 
during the last seven years, and that now that work is over 
and we must start on something new. That is a small con- 
ception of the work of the Joint Distribution Committee. It is 
a much bigger thing than a relief organization, and it has 
meant much more to the Jews of Europe than receiving the 
few dollars or a little bread. Those who came from America, 
those who entered the field, were symbols of hope. They 
brought not only relief but they brought strength to encour- 
age those who are engaged in this struggle, which, but for the 
presence of the American, they would unquestionably have 
had to give up. The money that you sent was insignificant 
compared with their needs, but the moral support that came 
from America, the presence of such men as Dr. Bogen, of 
Peiser and others who were there, who stayed right with them, 
made it possible for those communities there to continue. The 
Joint Distribution Committee in Europe became the center of 
all Jewish activities and all Jewish life. They were disap- 
pointed with the amount that you sent. They complained, 
each faction complained, but, nevertheless, they all hung on, 
and they all took their very life from the work of the Joint 
Distribution Committee. 

If you want to know how important your work was, 
ask those who have just returned from Europe what the 
cessation of your work in some fields means to Europe. We 
cannot get tired. Our difficulties in the raising of money — 
well, what is that compared to the difficulties that they have 
lived through during the last seven years? We cannot 
think of stopping. Somebody suggested that perhaps we 
can tell the people of America that this is going to be the 
last drive. I wish we could. Perhaps we shall not have to 

69 



have a drive such as this again, but the Jews of America are 
not the ones to determine that this or any other is going to be 
the last drive, so long as there are hundreds of thousands of 
orphans still stretching out their hands and depending on us 
for the very bread that gives life. (Applause.) 

What right have we to discuss when we should stop? What 
right have we to consider the difficulties we are confronted with, 
so long as they over there are starving and are being driven 
from place to place and are living in the trenches and do not 
know what the morrow will bring? If we knew, if we could be 
certain that the little progress that has been made in Europe 
through your efforts would continue, then we might think that 
the day will approach very soon when we will be relieved of 
this hardship, but we know nothing about it. The wall that 
has separated us from Russia and the Ukraine seems to be 
crumbling, not by any force of light sent by us, but by the 
force of the hopeless cries and the suffering of those on the 
other side. Perhaps before long we will be able to penetrate 
those parts of the Ukraine which up to the present have not 
been penetrated by any American message. Those 3,000,000 
who have been absolutely cut off from communication with 
their brethren outside will probably soon find a means, or, 
rather, we will soon find an avenue of getting into communi- 
cation with them and of bringing them some relief. 

Will anyone say that because we worked for seven years, 
or because we are getting tired, or because there is business de- 
pression, that when that wall is broken down and we can get 
into the Ukraine that we are not going to do for them precisely 
what we have done for the orphans of Poland? It is inconceiv- 
able that we shall even give a thought to abandon them there. 
And if you do meet, in this campaign, those who might tell you 
that we are imposing upon them, that we are overdoing it, 
those whose hearts cannot be penetrated by the appeals and 
by the description of the misery and the suffering, then let me 
suggest to you that you tell them that what you are doing 
is much more for them than for those who suffer there. And 
do you know what sort of a generation is growing up; do you 
know that since the outbreak of the war there have been no 
schools; that there has been absolutely no moral or ethical 
foundation laid? Do you know that they are growing up em- 
bittered, hating everything and everybody, and if we leave 
them to themselves, even if they should succeed in growing 
up to manhood and womanhood, it will be a manhood and 
womanhood of Jewry such as will actually give cause and will 
furnish concrete proof of the things that are falsely being said 
against us all? When a portion of our bodies decays the 
whole body is going to suffer from it, and it is for ourselves 
that we are doing this work, which may result in at least 
checking the process of decay. 

We cannot abandon them. If we do they will grow up 

70 



with hatred toward men and contempt for God. We cannot 
become tired; we cannot and dare not fail. Fourteen million 
dollars is a small sum. It may require more work than a year 
or two ago, so we will work. If instead of seeing one man and 
getting five hundred dollars from him, we must see fifty and 
get ten dollars from them, we will see the fifty, but the four- 
teen million dollars will be raised if only you will do your part 
of the work. (Applause.) 

(The question called for.) 

The Chairman: The question before the house is the 
adoption of the report of the committee that the campaign 
be launched for the raising of the necessary funds. 

A vote was taken and the Chairman declared that the 
Ayes have it unanimously. 

The Chairman: The Chair realizes his limitations in try- 
ing to impress upon you the responsibility which you have 
assumed for yourselves and those whom you represent here, 
and with all the solemnity that the occasion requires the Chair 
congratulates this conference upon having taken the most de- 
cisive and the most important step in connection with our 
deliberation. (Applause.) Recommendation No. 2 : 

"2. The date of the said campaign is to be between now 
and March 1st, and that each city should get into communica- 
tion with Mr. Henry H. Rosenfelt without delay, so that the 
dates may not collide." 

Is there any discussion on that recommendation? The 
Chair might suggest that this recommendation raises the ques- 
tion of whether a national campaign shall be had throughout 
the United States on the same date or whether each commu- 
nity shall determine for itself the date of the campaign, pro- 
vided it is done prior to March 1st, 1922. 

Mr. Warburg: So as to shorten the discussion on that 
point I would like to give you the benefit of the deliberation 
of the committee. It was urged at first that the effect of a 
simultaneous campaign throughout all the United States might 
have a driving power and might have a good effect. It was 
also pointed out that throughout the United States there will 
be requests for help and assistance, that speakers and secre- 
taries and organizers will be needed and that the number of 
organizers will be limited, and so it would be a physical im- 
possibility to satisfy the demands that would come from all 
over if the campaign were to take place on one certain date. 
It would, of course, be quite possible to have campaigns in 
certain neighboring districts simultaneously, so that the excite- 
ment of competition might be brought into play, but to have 
all the campaigns on one day would probably make it very 
difficult. I move that the recommendation be adopted. 

Mr. Rosenwald: While I have nothing definite in mind as 
to the date that ought to be set, it does seem to me that 
stretching it over as long a time as that, the tendency will be 

7! 



to put it off, and the result will be that the interest in it is 
very likely to become lessened from day to day between now 
and March. I know what that tendency is. If this work is 
going to be done, it does seem to me that stretching it out 
over a period of six months will result in almost every city's 
saying, "We will hold ours in January, or February, or 
March." 

Mr. Daniel Alexander: I feel just exactly the way Mr. 
Rosenwald does on this particular point and, if you will 
permit me, while I am discussing this phase of it, I will 
go just a little further. I am one who came from 'way 
beyond the mountains to hear the Wise Men of the East, 
to learn from them, not so much that we are going to have 
a drive, because the minute we received Mr. Rosenwald's letter 
and Mr. Marshall's letter I knew there was nothing else to 
do but to have a drive, but the question in my mind and in 
the minds of those who are interested out there and who 
asked me to take my time and come here is: When is the 
drive going to be, and how are we going to carry it out? It 
might seem foolish, in a way, for me, from this small commu- 
nity, to take the time of this convention, but I believe we can 
save time if we will concentrate our minds as much as possible 
on the vital thing that comes next: Now that we have de- 
cided to have that drive, is having it quickly going to make 
it successful? 

Now, gentlemen, this is said without any sense of boast- 
ing, but in our whole State we have but three hundred Jewish 
families. That is all we have, but last year we raised sixty- 
three thousand dollars. (Applause.) And with but very little 
exception did we accept a nickel from our Gentile friends. I 
conceive that the quota from my State will be about thirty 
thousand dollars, and I want to tell you here that before Janu- 
ary 1st I will send a check, or the treasurer of my State will 
send a check, for thirty thousand dollars, if that is the quota. 
(Applause.) I know business is bad; I know times are hard. 
There is not a State in the Union, I dare say, that is hit so 
hard as our little State is, with three essential industries to 
depend upon. All three of them at one time are practically 
down and out. In our State forty per cent, of the counties 
have not paid their last year's taxes, and it looks this year as 
if about eighty per cent, of them are going to default in pay- 
ing the State their proportion of the revenue. If, with that 
in front of me, I can stand here and tell you that I can raise 
one hundred dollars from each one of those three hundred fam- 
ilies, then don't you fellows who have got immense wealth 
around you, not limited wealth such as we have across those 
mountains, don't yot think you should start right in now and 
shorten the campaign, and before January 1st put it over? 

Let me tell you one little incident that occurred when I 
went around the State, appealing to the Jewish families scat- 

72 



tered throughout the State, to help us on our last campaign. 
One day a Gentile woman walked into my office and she said: 
"Mr. Alexander, I heard you talking last night at a little farm- 
ing community a little ways outside of Salt Lake City, and I 
heard your pictures of those poor, little, starving, homeless 
orphans." And she said: "I would like to help. I haven't got 
any money; I haven't even got any produce that I can sell and 
raise money with, but my husband and I are living on a farm 
that we are homesteading, and we still owe the Government 
fifteen hundred dollars; we still owe the mercantile institution 
for produce; we still owe for the horses and the cows that we 
are buying, but," she said, "if you will send us two of those 
little orphans, we will adopt them and raise them in our fam- 
ily." (Applause.) That was one Gentile woman. Another, 
whom I knew personally, was having her farm foreclosed, a 
widow with five youngsters, and all the property that she had 
that was free from seizure by the sheriff and others was eighty 
shares of water stock, worth $40 a share — $3,200. What did 
she do? She sent me that water stock and asked me to sell 
it and send the money to Europe. Now, when I brought those 
two examples to the attention of the Jews in our community 
who were lagging, they acted just as though I had seized the 
entire community and taken them across the water and let 
them see the whole thing first hand. Within ten days there- 
after we had raised our quota. 

And now, gentlemen, the only reason I arose was to urge 
that we do not delay this thing too long. We know it is a 
mighty task, and the sooner we get at it the greater pleasure 
we will get out of it and the sooner we will accomplish it. Mr. 
Chairman, I move that you amend the suggestion of the com- 
mittee and that the time be fixed as of January 1st, 1922. 

Mr. Feiss: I second the amendment for January 1st, 1922. 
The reason I second that amendment is this: I don't believe 
there has ever been a body of men representing the Jewish 
people of the country as earnest as the body we have here, and 
I believe if they go back home now, after what they have 
heard, they will get to work at once; whereas, if they wait 
until after January 1st, their interest will lag, and therefore 
I second that amendment. 

Mr. Rosenberg: In relation to the form of that para- 
graph I had understood that it let every community fix its 
own time, whether that be in January or March, and the 
reason that was done was so that the speakers and the 
secretary, etc., could be supplied when they are needed. I 
rise to inquire whether this purpose is not defeated if the com- 
munities fix the time. If you say, "Let January 1st be the 
time" they may take the last two weeks in December, or if 
they do not, they may match up in such a way that you can- 
not accomplish the purpose intended. As a mere matter of 
administration, wouldn't it be feasible to allow the committee 

73 



that is going to run this thing determine the time for the 
various campaigns? Isn't there in Chicago a serious question 
as to whether you want to have it the last, or the first, or in 
the middle? The same question faces other cities. I rise to 
suggest that consideration be given to the question of whether 
«or not the committee which has central charge of this whole 
thing may not fix the time, corresponding, of course, with the 
various communities in order to discover their needs and 
desires. 

A Delegate: I think the last speaker has spoken wisely, 
because now we are enthusiastic and have been unquestionably 
enthused by the oratory we have heard. It seems to me that 
a certain committee should chart the entire country. If it is 
not practicable to hold one drive simultaneously throughout 
the country, then the work should be divided by State or 
section, whichever is the most practicable, and in rapid suc- 
cession, one section after the other be requested to hold their 
campaign, and in that way see the whole problem through. If 
that is done the allocation of speakers, the distribution of sup- 
plies can be provided for instantly and plans can be made 
and the enthusiasm maintained. If you do what has been pro- 
posed by the original report, leave it to each section and let 
it drag for six months, the enthusiasm will wane and I am 
very much afraid the campaign will fail. It seems to me what 
should be done is to leave the matter to the Organization 
Committee to determine as to the plan of campaign, the time 
when it should start in each section, and the time when it 
should end. 

Mr. G. H. Newburger: I have listened with a great deal of 
interest to the discussion on the authority which should be 
given to the committee to fix the time for the holding of this 
campaign, and I would like to state for just a moment that the 
experience that came to me in the conduct of several of these 
campaigns, I find to be in contradiction to what has been said 
here this evening. We found in our little rural part of the State 
that I am here to represent that we were compelled by force of 
circumstances to adopt a time not entirely within our own de- 
sire, but determined by the events that were transpiring in that 
locality. I might mention that in the time that was allocated by 
the general committee, several other drives of different character 
were scheduled to take place in our community, so in consulta- 
tion with my confreres in that matter we decided to place our 
campaign at the most advantageous time. The result was that 
our little burg of 25,000 people raised something like $16,900, 
and our collections were about one hundred per cent, of our 
subscriptions. We did that merely by stepping aside for some 
of the other drives of the same character that were taking place. 
Therefore, Mr. Chairman, without going into the matter much 
further, I think it would be wise on the part of the committee 
to allow the local committees to handle these campaigns as they 
see fit. No man who has been here today can go away from 

74 



here and lose enthusiasm, particularly after such speeches as we 
have heard from Mr. Marshall and Judge Fisher. I want to say 
this in passing: I have never been so stirred in my life as I 
have been by the few remarks made by Judge Fisher, and I 
am sure, so far as I am concerned, I can speak the same for 
those other gentlemen, that time will detract not one bit from 
the enthusiasm which we all have here, whether we have our 
drive in January, or February, or December; but leave it to 
us, knowing the local situation as to the time in which it can 
best be done. 

Col. Lehman: I don't think it does make any difference 
when we set the time, whether the first of January or Decem- 
ber or the first of March, but I think there is very much to 
what other people have said in regard to stating the general 
time limits and letting the local committees decide the exact 
time for their own campaign. Later on we will appoint a 
Central Committee. I think if we leave the determination of 
the time for the various campaigns to this committee, it is 
going to put too much responsibility on that committee. I 
think if the conference all go away and take no steps before 
they go, they may delay and confuse matters. I think the 
suggestion was made a little while ago that we of New York 
and Chicago, the two big cities of the country, go ahead with 
the campaign as we have begun to formulate it, with the 
understanding that the others have their campaign not later 
than the first of March. I am sure if this suggestion is 
adopted the other cities will follow very promptly. 

The Chairman: This committee report suggests that each 
committee be allowed to select its own date for a campaign, 
and that the selection be for a date prior to March 1st. Mr. 
Alexander offers an amendment to the recommendation of the 
committee substituting January first in place of March first. 
Are you ready for the question? All those in favor will please 
signify it by saying Aye. The Noes seem to have it; the 
Noes do have it and the amendment is lost. The question 
occurs in the original recommendation of the committee, that 
the date be allowed to remain March first. 

(Motion carried and the recommendation of the committee 
adopted.) 

The Chairman: The next recommendation is that the 
amount to be raised at the campaign be fixed at four- 
teen million dollars. That the tentative division of the same 
be: Five million for Russia; two and one-half million for 
economic rehabilitation; five hundred thousand for cultural 
work; three and one-half million for child care outside of 
Russia; one and one-half million for repatriation; one million 
for medical relief. 

75 



Judge Fisher: I move that the discussion o£ this subject 
be deferred until tomorrow morning. I think it is a very im- 
portant matter. 

The Chairman (to Mr. Seelenfreund) : Do you want to 
speak on the motion? 

Mr. Seelenfreund: I won't take up much time, ladies and 
gentlemen, but I want to warn you, to caution you that in 
these European communities there has arisen a condition that 
is most preposterous from the standpoint of principles and 
from the standpoint of morals. In different parts of Poland, 
certain parts of Upper Hungary, and some parts of Roumania, 
there are political reasons and economic conditions as a result 
of which the Jewish people are leaving those lands — they can- 
not secure any schooling or education; the Rabbis cannot teach 
and the Jewish spiritual and the Jewish educational work are 
suffering. The people wander from village to village, trying 
to find a place where they can gain a foothold, and it is im- 
possible to do so owing to the tragic situation. Fifty-two 
communities have been practically wiped out by the Polish 
authorities. University professors find it impossible to give 
lectures for lack of decent clothing to present themselves be- 
fore the school body. If you think it necessary to save the 
bodies of our people from hunger it is also necessary to save 
from annihilation the Jewish spiritual life, the Jewish faith. 
What of the coming generation if you devote three and half 
per cent, for Jewish spiritual work and educational work — 
allow ninety-six per cent, for the body and neglect the soul? 

Mr. Warburg: I want to call it to the attention of the 
last speaker that though this is a small sum to allot for cul- 
tural work, the three committees have the right to withdraw 
a larger percentage when the collections are made for cultural 
purposes, and I think they have received a larger amount this 
last year. 

I don't think it would be advisable, if for no other reason 
than publicity purposes, to set out a larger amount for cultural 
purposes in this agreement. The gentlemen of the committee 
are not to be bound by this resolution. It is simply an esti- 
mate to indicate what the fourteen millions, if raised, would 
be used for. If you were to say three millions were to go for 
teachers, you would find a good many people would say, "Feed 
the children and get them healthy and let the teaching come 
later." 

Mr. Rosenwald: May I speak just one moment on that 
subject? It seems to me it is a great mistake for us to say in 
the campaign anything concerning culture. I don't think the 
people are interested how much — whether we are going to use 
one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand, more or less, 
for any particular phase of the work. If they have confidence 

76 



in the people who are going to distribute this money, I believe 
it will only complicate matters and create discord to put in 
the amount we are giving to any of these various purposes. 
I move, if it is in order to do so, that that part of the report 
be eliminated, and the motion limit itself to the total to be 
raised. 

(Motion seconded.) 

Mr. Lehman (Pittsburgh) : Mr. Chairman, I believe it 
would be a mistake to eliminate entirely the purposes for 
which the fourteen million is to be used. 

Mr. Rosenwald: That is not the intention. 

Mr. Lehman: If you eliminate only the amounts and in- 
clude the purposes for which the money is being raised, that 
will be satisfactory. 

Mr. Weitzenkorn: Is it the intention of Mr. Rosenwald's 
motion that we say nothing about the apportionment whatever, 
only to raise the fourteen million? 

The Chairman: Let the Chair state the question so the 
conference may understand it: The committee recommends the 
amount to be raised be fourteen million dollars, five million for 
Russia, two and one-half million for economic rehabilitation, 
and so forth. Mr. Rosenwald moves that this recommendation 
be amended so as to raise fourteen million dollars, the money 
to be applied for Russia, for economic rehabilitation, for cul- 
tural work, for child care outside of Russia, for repatriation 
and for medical relief, sanitation and general relief. 

Mr. Weitzenkorn: Mr. Chairman, is it necessary to have 
an apportionment of these amounts? I speak from an experi- 
ence of ten years of the petty jealousies connected with 
Ukrainian, Russian, Lithuanian and Roumanian work, injected 
into a campaign by the question raised here regarding the 
amounts allotted to the different countries. Why not leave 
that entirely out, and have it taken care of entirely by the 
committee? It has raised a question each time it has come 
up, and we have had to straighten it out. You are not going to 
raise that question if you cut it squarely to the fourteen million, 
and it is for European relief, and let the details be settled by 
the men of the committee. 

Mr. Rosenwald: I will withdraw my motion in favor of 
Mr. Weitzenkorn's. 

Judge Fisher: I move we gather into court the suggestion 
that the amounts be left out. I think it absolutely necessary 
to let people know we intend the relief of Russia to this 
amount. I think we should let the people know throughout 
the land. Moreover, it is equally necessary to let them know 
that we have reached a point where palliative relief comes to 
an end and specific functional work is undertaken. Otherwise 
we are going to them with precisely the same questions we 

77 



went to them with four years ago. It is true some controversy 
will arise, but you will have much more controversy if it 
should be thought that we intended to use this money for 
palliative relief in Poland and other countries, or if it should 
be thought that Russia will be left out. 

The Chairman: Do you want the question? The question 
is upon Mr. Rosenwald's motion, which deals with the fourteen 
million dollars to be raised. All in favor of the question say 
Aye. The Ayes have it. The question will occur on the 
original recommendation of the committee as amended, that 
fourteen million dollars be raised. All in favor of the question 
signify it by saying Aye. Contrary, No. The Ayes have it. 
Again the Chair emphasizes 

Judge Fisher: May I move an amendment, Mr. Chairman, 
that we include in this the statement that part of this money 
will be used for relief in Russia? 

Mr. Lehman (New York) : I agree with Judge Fisher. In 
the campaign we will have to keep before all of us three 
things: Russia, child care and economic rehabilitation. We 
will mention that, reiterate it, a hundred times in the cam- 
paign. 

The Chairman: Judge Fisher suggests, and the record will 
so show, and the managing committee will take into con- 
sideration the needs of Russia, and make certain recommenda- 
tions for the needs of Russia. 

The time having now arrived for the conference to ad- 
journ, it has been moved and seconded that the conference 
do now adjourn to meet tomorrow morning at nine-thirty 
o'clock. All in favor of the motion signify it by saying "Aye." 
The Ayes have it. 



78 



Session of Sunday 

September 25—9.30 A. M. 

The Chairman : The conference will please come to order. 
When the conference adjourned last night it was discussing 
the report presented by the Chairman of the Committee on 
Plan and Scope. 

The consent of the conference is requested at this time 
for presentation of views of the B'nai Brith, their attitude and 
desire to help in this drive. I am delighted to state to the 
conference that the National President of the B'nai Brith has 
been among those who have asked for this conference, has 
done his share for the success of the conference, has been with 
us from the very beginning, is with us this morning, and it is 
a great pleasure to have all of you gentlemen from all parts 
of the country see and hear our distinguished co-worker, 
Adolph Kraus. 

Mr. Kraus: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen — I am glad to 
be here at the conference this morning. I desire to make a 
brief statement so as not to be criticized unfavorably hereafter. 

At the last meeting of the Executive Committee of the 
order, held in May last, it was decided to raise money among 
our members to take care of some of the war orphans. In 
other words, the plan that has been discussed here was there 
adopted, that each member who could should adopt one of these 
war orphans, by paying one hundred dollars a year towards its 
care and education, and if some of the members did not feel that 
they could afford to pay that four or five of them club together 
and adopt a war orphan. That was during May last. It was 
published in our official organ, and we have received quite a 
sum of money already to take care of these children. We 
notified the different Grand Lodges in Europe that we are 
going to do that work. We sent a secretary out to make ar- 
rangements there so that it could be properly attended to. 
We can't stop in this work; we have got to go on and finish 
it — at least to some extent. I don't suppose that we can take 
care of very many, but will probably raise money enough 
among our own members to take care of five hundred to a 
thousand orphans. 

Now, as I said, it will be confined simply to our members, 
but when you go out and do this work I foresee that some 
will say we are interfering with the work of this organi- 
zation. We don't intend to interfere; we intend to do all we 
can to help you to raise the money that you want, but we 
have been pledged to take care of a certain number of orphans 

79 



and we have got to do that. I think it is due, having taken a 
great part in organizing this committee here, that we should 
make that statement, so we should not be charged with at- 
tempting to duplicate the work or interfering. The Order will 
be perfectly willing and pleased to notify the Executive Com- 
mittee of this organization of the particular number of orphans 
they will take — they are taking care of and at what place, so 
that there should be no interference. That is the statement I 
desire to make in justice to our position. 

The Chairman: Are there any comments? It will be 
pleasing to the Conference to know that some gentlemen who 
were invited were unable to come but are with us in the work 
and agree with our position. Here is a telegram addressed to 
Mr. Rosenfelt from Minneapolis by Mr. Joseph S. Schanfeld, 
reading : "Greetings to the Conference. May your deliberations 
bring relief to suffering European Jews. Sorry could not 
attend and that those named to represent Minneapolis were 
prevented at last moment from going. Since nineteen four- 
teen in addition to sums we were instrumental in raising in 
smaller communities Minneapolis sent over a half million dol- 
lars, with $30,000 coming between now and January first. If 
Conference decides to continue campaign for funds we stand 
prepared heartily to do our duty in 1922. Best wishes to Con- 
ference." (Signed) "Joseph S. Shanfeld." Another from Esca- 
naba, Michigan, signed by Herman Gessner: "Impossible to 
attend Conference. You have our support for the success of 
the Convention and I will be glad to act as representative for 
our district in anything you decide to do which we assure you 
will meet with our approval. We will take an active part and 
work in co-operation with you." 

At this time we will continue the work which was left 
off where we stopped last night, and consider further the 
report of the Committee on Plan and Scope. Under our pro- 
cedure the next question for consideration is Number 4, the 
question whether the drive should be Jewish or non-sectarian. 
This question, in the opinion of the Committee, should be left 
to each community to decide for itself. What is your pleas- 
ure? Let the Chair state the question: It has been moved 
and seconded the Conference concur in the recommendation 
of the Committee that whether the drive should be Jewish or 
non-sectarian be left to each community. 

Mr. Feiss: I think probably that the decision should 
be left to the Committees, but I think the Conference should 
recommend that open drives be non-sectarian. In other words 
it should read that, while the decision shall be left with the 
local Committees, the Conference Committee recommends a 
non-sectarian drive. It seems to me that the time has arrived 
when we shall not on the part of the Jews emphasize the 

80 



separatist movement. There has been always a criticism that 
the Jew has been somewhat to blame for his isolation. It 
seems to me that when men, women and children are suffering 
the question of their religious beliefs or national character 
should be forgotten. If the Jews can make any contribution 
towards the elimination of these lines, particularly in relief 
matters, we should do our best to further that cause. It is, 
of course, desirous in certain communities not to emphasize or 
even attempt a non-sectarian drive, but I believe that in the 
vast majority of communities a great many Christians will be 
very glad indeed to make their contribution to Jewish Relief, 
as they have in the past, and in so doing, express their own 
appreciation for the generous response we have given fre- 
quently to other campaigns. 

The Chairman: Mr. Feiss of Cleveland moves that the 
recommendation of the Committee be amended that it is the 
sense of the Conference that if possible drives should be along 
non-sectarian lines. 

Mr. Rosenfelt: Two years ago Senator Salisbury of Dela- 
ware said, "This is not a Jewish movement, it is a human 
movement." That was the basis of our campaign in 1919, as a 
result of which we raised millions of dollars on a non-sectarian 
basis. I think most communities will have non-sectarian cam- 
paigns this year. 

Mr. Marshall: I ask consent to a modification, to say 
"where practicable" instead of "where possible." Everything 
is possible, but, after all, the practicable, fundamental part is 
that we should encourage non-sectarian campaigns. Our ex- 
perience has been that certain communities are very adaptable 
to that idea, and that the people in those communities regard 
it as a privilege to contribute. There have been other com- 
munities in which they have been very, very indifferent to our 
campaigns. There have been shining exceptions of individuals 
who have come forward and have insisted upon contributing. 
I don't think we have the right to refuse a contribution any- 
where by non-Jews. I think it may give offense and I think 
it would emphasize the separatist idea which Mr. Feiss takes 
very proper exception to. I know in my native state in the 
last campaign by far the largest amount that was contributed 
was contributed by non-Jews, at Syracuse, New York, and 
they paid much more promptly than those who occupied 
prominent positions on the social register in the Jewish com- 
munity. I had recent occasion to correspond with the Com- 
mittee of Joplin, Missouri, which is represented here by Mr. 
Newberger, and it v/as my great delight to note the spirit 
which was manifested by the people of the Y. M. C. A. and 
by various ministers who considered it a duty on their part 
to aid us in this situation. Bear in mind that we are not dis- 
tributing the money we have collected exclusively to Jews. 

81 



We are now co-operating with the A. R. A. We haven't ear- 
marked the money specifically for Jews, although we know 
the Jews will be well taken care of. There has not been a 
time since the beginning of our work that we have not aided 
non-Jews. I think perhaps the percentage of money collected 
going to non-Jews will about equal the amount received from 
non-Jews. But the principle for which Mr, Feiss speaks we 
think is a principle which every community must decide for 
itself, whether or not to feature the non-sectarian idea. 

Mr. Rosenwald: May I just add one word to that? To 
my mind my experience here in Chicago proved the effect is 
beneficial. If I am not mistaken out of a total of two million 
dollars — two million two hundred thousand — about five hundred 
thousand came from non-Jews. But to my mind that was the 
least of value that came from the non-Jews. I think the spirit 
of co-operation makes for a much better feeling in a community. 
I won't speak of all communities, but I believe it makes for a 
much better feeling if we say that we are very glad indeed to 
accept non-Jewish contributions and that we help non-Jews 
in those countries. That spirit helps very materially in the 
feeling between Jews and non-Jews throughout the world. 

Mr. Rosenfelt: I wish Mr. Rosenwald would say a word 
about Wilmington, Delaware. 

Mr. Marshall: At a subsequent campaign at which I was 
present, the leading non-Jews of Delaware attended. There also 
the larger amount of money collected came from non-Jews 
who insisted on contributing to that campaign. 

Mr. Rosenwald: We had non-Jews give as much as 
$10,000 personally. 

Mr. Marshall: At Syracuse, one of the largest amounts 
was given by one of the non-Jewish leaders. The total amount 
subscribed was $150,000. He said he would give 10 per cent, 
and he wrote his check for $15,000. 

Mr. Feiss: Mr. Chairman, I have been in many drives. 
First, particularly, about six years ago for our hospital. We 
solicited for this Jewish Hospital and we decided we would 
have only Jews subscribe and would not make a thorough 
canvass of the whole population. I happened to be made 
Chairman of the Board at the time and from many non- 
Jewish sources voluntary contributions came in, by mail, 
over the telephone, and often I would be stopped on the street 
by non-Jewish friends who would say, "Why, aren't we in- 
cluded in this?" The Jews had contributed in their drives of 
that character and they thought it not fair that they were not 
included. My amendment is not intended to control every 
local community but to put the emphasis on the non-sectarian 
appeal. 

Mr. Benjamin: We have heard the expressions from this 
Conference, from gentlemen from the larger cities, but you have 
overlooked the fact that in towns of forty to fifty thousand we 

82 



are handicapped with lack of wealth among our own people. In 
our last campaign in Sangamon County we raised approximate- 
ly $40,000 and $20,000 of that came from non-Jewish sources. I 
believe all towns from 20,000 to 50,000 will be almost com- 
pelled, if they want to come to any quota whatsoever, to go to 
non-Jews for contributions. 

Mr. Block: I regret to have to differ with you gentlemen 
who have spoken on this question, but I believe that the 
strength of the Jew in America has been made so from the 
fact that he takes care of his own. I am interested in the 
quotation you have printed in the "Relief News," which I 
believe says: "The Jew takes care of himself when able to 
work, and when he is incapacitated his own people take care 
of him." I am opposed to the non-sectarian soliciting cam- 
paign, but I am not opposed to voluntary subscriptions on the 
part of the non-Jews. I would therefore move an amendment 
to Mr. Feiss' amendment, that voluntary subscriptions be ac- 
cepted from non-Jews, but no solicitation be indulged in. 

The Chairman: Mr. Block moves an amendment to the 

amendment presented by Mr. Feiss, to the effect that the 

words "accept contributions" be substituted in place of the 
words "request contributions." 

A Delegate: Mr. Chairman, has that been seconded? 

The Chairman: Nobody seconded that amendment, so the 
question is on the original amendment. 

Mr. Joseph: In our experience the non-sectarian drive is 
very successful, and especially now after we had the European 
Council drive. In Minnesota we had two — one other besides 
myself — on that Committee. I am glad to say we were very 
active and we recognize it would assist us now if we do make 
a non-sectarian drive in our state. I would therefore state I 
am in favor of the original recommendation. 

The Chairman: The question is on the amendment 
offered by Mr. Block. All those in favor 

(Cries of "State it.") 

The Chairman: The amendment which Mr. Block offered 
is that in place of recommending to the members of the Con- 
ference that the drive be along non-sectarian lines, in the sense 
that we ask non-Jews to contribute money, that it be along 
lines permitting non-Jews to contribute, not asking for it. All 
in favor of the amendment offered by Mr. Block signify it by 
saying Aye. The Noes have it and the amendment is lost. 
The question reverts now to the amendment offered by Mr. 
Feiss of Cleveland, who reduced it to writing (Reading) : 
"It is moved that the decision that the local drives be 

83 



non-sectarian shall be left to the local committees, but that a 
non-sectarian drive be recommended." Are you ready for the 
question? All those in favor of the amendment signify it by 
saying Aye, contrary No. The Ayes have it and the recom- 
mendation of the committee as amended is before you. Those 
in favor of adopting the recommendation of the committee as 
amended signify it by saying Aye, contrary No. The Ayes 
have it and the recommendation of the committee as amended 
is adopted. 

The next question is Number 5. The question of a quota 
for each community should be agreed upon between the di- 
rector and the different communities. Any discussion on that? 
(Motion made and seconded.) It is moved and seconded that 
the Conference agree on the fifth recommendation of the 
Committee on Plan and Scope. Are you ready for the ques- 
tion? (Vote taken.) The Ayes have it and the fifth recom- 
mendation is concurred in. 

Number 6. The question of a slogan is to be left to the 
Publicity Committee, of which Mr. Henry H. Rosenfelt is one 
and suggestions are invited from the floor. 

Mr. Block: Mr. Chairman, in order to expedite matters, 
and to prevent any discussion of the numerous suggestions 
from the floor, I move those in attendance on this Conference 
who have any slogans to suggest send them direct to Mr. 
Rosenfelt at the New York office. (Motion seconded.) 

Motion put and carried. 

Mr. Rosenthal: I was going to make this suggestion, and 
it does seem to me it might go on record, tabooing the word 
"drive." The time for drives is past, and the time for appeals 
is on us. Let us not ever in our literature use the word 
"drive." 

Mr. Benjamin: I would also like to suggest if there is 
any other word in our vocabulary where the publicity man can 
eliminate the word "campaign." 

Mr, Rosenfelt: Mr. Chairman, we have done both. We 
use the word "appeal" in all our drives. 

The Chairman: The Chair at this time would like to 
experience the pleasure of sitting on the other side of the table 
and ask Mr. Gans to take the chair. 

(Mr. Gans takes the chair.) 

Mr. Rubens: I am surrounded here by several very 
wealthy men and each one of these is loath to make sug- 
gestions regarding a slogan. Each of these gentlemen — 
I might name them, Morgenthau, Rosenwald, Billikopf, Davis 
— are loath to discuss this. Mr. BilHkopf suggested one 

84 



last night, I think it would be well for the consideration of 
this Conference. It is simple, snappy, suggestive and may help 
in this appeal for funds. Mr. Billikopf said : "It can be done" 
and we suggest to add to that: "It will be done." 

Mr. Marshall: Why not "Thy will be done"? 

Mr. Marshall: Mr. Chairman, it is a little out of order, 
and I am not sure how far we will progress in the regular 
program before I shall be obliged to leave. Therefore I pray the 
indulgence of the Chair and also of the Conference to present a 
matter for the consideration of the Conference which I regard to 
be of the utmost importance. It is vital to the success of our 
coming appeal. 

Before I formulate the proposition that I desire to present, as 
President of the American Jewish ReHef Committee, I wish to 
have the pleasure of giving testimony to the admirable work that 
has been performed as our Director by Mr. Henry H. Rosenfelt. 
He came to us in our early history, that is, the early history of 
our efforts, and he has remained with us at great sacrifice to him- 
self, and to his career as a member of the legal profession. He 
changed his abode from Kansas City to New York and changed 
his entire occupation and habits of mind. Over all those years he 
has been faithful and loyal, intelligent, industrious, persevering. 
He has become acquainted with the various parts of our 
Jewish population; he has been tactful and diplomatic. I have 
heard no complaint as to the manner in which he has dealt 
with problems under his care, or the many people who have 
come into communication with him. He has conducted corre- 
spondence with leading Jews throughout America. He has 
succeeded in performing miracles with a very small organiza- 
tion; he has kept down our expenses to the minimum, so that 
our record of expenditures of the campaign is on the lowest 
basis, I am informed, of any of the various activities in that 
direction that have been conducted in this country during the 
war period. (Applause.) I say this as a mere matter of 
justice and know that it is the sentiment of every man who 
is here and who has come into contact with Mr. Rosenfelt. 

Now, we have decided upon a campaign — excuse the 
term — to raise the sum of fourteen million dollars. We have 
limited the duration of that campaign to the first of March. 
We are to have active work done in practically every state of 
the Union. That means a tremendous problem for any man 
or for any body of men to take care of. And Mr. Rosenfelt 
recognizes the fact that in order to accomplish what we have 
set before him as a task it is necessary that he shall always 
have with him advisers, directors, representing this body, 
representing the American Jewish Relief Committee; who will 
be at hand so that he may counsel with them, and who may 
give to him their views as to what should be done, who should 

85 



be engaged, how the campaign should be conducted, what 
literature shall be sent out, and all the thousand and one 
elements that go to make up an effort of this character. 

I have taken this matter up with Mr. Rosenfelt, we have 
been discussing ways and means, and it is his suggestion that 
he desires such counsellors, men who shall be with him and 
upon whom he shall have the right to call — as he has the 
right to call upon anybody now — but whose business it shall 
be to be prepared to volunteer their ideas and views and 
services in connection with this campaign; and who shall have 
a mandate from this body to act in that capacity. I have been 
very much impressed by the ideas expressed by Mr. Billikopf 
in the paper he read yesterday. What I suggest is: To my 
thought, there shall be a driving force behind this appeal, and 
there shall be men who are able by experience and knowledge 
as to the situation in each country and as to the problems, to 
be on hand to do this directing work. 

I therefore move that a committee of five be appointed 
to act in the capacity of directors, a committee of special 
managing directors, if you please, the term is unimportant; it 
would only show that the committee has authority to act, and 
that it represents directly the body of this conference — who 
shall co-operate with our general director, Mr. Rosenfelt, dur- 
ing the pendency of this effort that we are making to get 
$14,000,000. Now, I shall be asked, "Who shall the chairman 
of that committee be?" Mr. Billikopf 's paper has given the 
answer. There is only one man who by experience, by train- 
ing, is equal to performing that duty and that is David A. 
Brown. (Applause.) While the conscription act of Con- 
gress has been repealed, nevertheless, we have the right in 
this war which we are waging against misery and poverty to 
conscript men who shall perform this work. My idea is that 
Mr. Brown shall be chosen chairman here and now; that he 
shall be permitted to choose his associates. I make sugges- 
tions as to who those associates shall be. I see one before me, 
Mr. Becker. (Applause.) There is another one right near 
me, Mr. Billikopf. (Applause.) Without having to turn far, 
I think, owing to his great interest in the subject, Mr. Mast- 
baum, of Philadelphia, is another. (Applause.) So that we 
may get together a cabinet which will surround Mr. Brown 
and Mr. Rosenfelt, who will, I am sure, if it is humanly 
possible to do it, make an absolute guaranty of the success of 
this venture. I therefore move that this Conference, desiring 
to appoint a committee of five members, of which we now 
name Mr. David A. Brown as chairman, with the power given 
to Mr. Brown, in conference with Mr. Rosenfelt, to designate 
such number of associates on that committee as they may 
deem proper. 



86 




Mr. Henry H. Rosenfelt: Mr. Chairman, I have not the 
power or abiHty of Mr. Marshall, but if I had even then I 
hardly think I could be able to express my 
kind feelings; if I had the ability of Dr. 
Krass or Judge Fisher I doubt if I could ex- 
press my sentiments at this moment to Mr. 
Marshall. Whatever sacrifices I have made 
in the past, I say in all frankness and all 
sincerity are repaid in full by what Mr. Mar- 
shall has said a few moments ago. (Ap- 
plause.) 

While I am on my feet I want to say 
that we want to assure the success of this 
campaign and my experience of five years 
in this work means something, and I heartily and fully approve 
Mr. Marshall's views. I believe that under the leadership 
of Mr. David A. Brown this campaign is absolutely certain to 
be a success, to be the success it ought to be. (Applause.) 

Mr. Marshall: I should have said that the number of the 
committee shall not be less than five, and while I was rapidly 
going over the list of names I did not intend to be exclusive. 
I simply named men who at the moment came into my mind. 
I do wish to say that no man is more entitled to be considered 
a member of the committee than Mr. Charles Rubens, of 
Chicago. (Applause.) 

Mr. Rosenthal: I feel that Mr. Brown will be sure of 
success. I think the work of this Conference should go fur- 
ther than the mere selection of this Supreme Council. They 
should be armed with the mandatory authority that could pick 
a man from anywhere in America saying that he should go and 
give his services the same as they are giving their services. 

Mr. Marshall: Making it a draft board. 

Mr. Rosenthal: I want it to be a Supreme Council. I 
want it to be a pledge to men in America that at any time 
and any place during the period of this campagin, assuming, of 
course, that there are conditions over which they will have no 
control, which will prevent them from going, that we will have 
the benefit of their services. In common parlance we know that 
Babe Ruth has been knocking out more home runs since he 
changed from Boston to New York, and the same with us, 
maybe we could knock a few home runs if we could go to 
some other place. I believe that New York needs Mr. Chair- 
man Brown. (Applause.) I believe that if this campaign is 
going to be a success New York has got to go to it first, has 
got to make a success of it. It is easy for the rest of the 
country if New York succeeds — it is, for a fact. Now, Mr. 
Chairman, if we pass this resolution, I am going to ask that 
this Conference stand in a rising vote and pledge the service 
of each individual to this Council. If we are going to dele- 
gate a great big job to some fellows, let us not go off and 
then stop. 

87 



Mr. Feiss: Rising to second the name of Mr. Brown, I 
wish to call attention to the fact that we are facing the most 
serious problem we have ever had confronting us. The sum 
asked for is smaller, but the obstacles are greater, and we 
need the impelling force of a tremendous impact that can be 
sent through the entire land and be heard, and that can only 
be accomplished if there is the right man back of that force, 
the man to project it. It is not a question of New York, no, 
Mr. Brown, it is not a question of the rest of America; it is 
a question of the rest of Europe, and that is why we need Mr. 
Brown now. (Applause.) If the motion needs any further 
second, I am presenting it to you and to the Conference. 
There can be no other man than Brown. (Applause.) 

Mr. Rosenwald: May I say that regardless of any of the 
names that have been mentioned in connection with war relief, 
I honestly believe that our war relief campaigns for the last 
three or four years would never have been nearly as suc- 
cessful if it had not been for the energy and for the en- 
thusiasm that was put into these campaigns, directly and indi- 
rectly, by Mr. Brown. I had no idea who Mr. Brown was 
until I met him in New York three or four years ago, and I 
tell you I was enthused and everybody was enthused who 
came under his influence, to work harder, and to my mind he 
is more responsible for the success of the campaigns in this 
country than any other one man or probably any other dozen 
men. I most heartily endorse and second the name of Mr. 
Brown as the head of this movement. 

Mr. Morgenstern: We have committed this body today to 
the unqualified support of Mr. Brown. May I transgress the 
rules for a moment and propose a slogan: "Let's do it up 
Brown." (Laughter.) 

Judge Asher: Mr. Chairman, speaking for New England, 
it is very hard, of course, for Massachusetts to acknowledge 
the superior leadership of anybody coming from any other 
part of the country, but, nevertheless, we who have been 
interested in the war relief work in the last number of years 
in New England, have heard of the mysterious Mr. Brown. 
We have heard also of the mysterious Mr. Smith, through 
whose activities the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
received a tremendous endowment fund. The words worked 
like magic, "the mysterious Mr. Smith." Now we have the 
mysterious Mr. Brown. He is no longer a mystery to us, but 
one who represents the dynamic force that will put this cam- 
paign over. I speak for Massachusetts; I speak for New 
England, when I say it is essential to have Mr. Brown at the 
head of this campaign, not because he is Mr. Brown alone, 
but because he represents that spirit, that power, that inspira- 
tion, that force, that is going to put us across the line this 
year. We are now entering upon the days of football. Now 
let us all with Brown as our captain, work together, push 

88 



together, push the ball over the line, so that we can get as 
many touch-downs as possible, to the end that those on the 
other side may have a chance to live, a chance to breathe, a 
chance to enjoy the Happy New Year that we all hope to 
enjoy. (Applause.) 

(Cries of "Brown, Brown, Brown.") 

Mr. Brown: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: At 
some time during this gathering I proposed to get right down 
to hard tacks and give some of you fellows the inside of 
money-getting and then I was going to talk about state 
scenery and all of the other methods of putting on our so- 
called — whatever we are going to call it — but I find there are 
other scene painters and scene setters. Perhaps you don't 
know that my wife and I sail on the Olympic for Europe on 
November the 5th. 

Mr. Marshall: Cancel passage. 

The Chairman: Mr. Brown will be in order, please; just 
a moment, the Chair wants to insist on an orderly procedure. 
Mr. Brown is out of order. The motion before the house is 
the one made by Mr. Marshall and it is (laughter) — the Con- 
ference will be in order — and it is — Mr. Brown will resume his 
seat for a minute. (Laughter.) The motion before the house 
is that made by Mr. Marshall and that is, that this Conference 
appoint a committee headed by Mr. Brown, to take charge of 
the campaign. All those in favor of the motion will signify 
it by saying "Aye." Contrary, "No." The Ayes have it, the 
motion is carried unanimously. Now, gentlemen of the Con- 
ference, I heard yesterday about the passage which Mr. Brown 
has engaged for Europe. I know of his plans. I know that 
he is not going to go to Europe, he is going to stay in 
America and take charge of this campaign. (Laughter, and 
cries of "Hooray." Applause.) Now then, the Chair in 
recognizing Mr. Brown, is going to ask him to back up the 
Chair in the way every other member has backed him up 
and Mr. Brown's remarks are limited to words of acceptance 
and words of direction to us (laughter), direction to us of how 
to start the campaign, and Mr. Brown may expect the gavel 
to drop if his words are in any other vein. Mr. Brown. 

Mr. Brown: Let us be serious. Don't misunderstand me. 
I certainly feel flattered by even the suggestion of my name, 
as the Chairman of the coming campaign, but I have worked 
very hard for a few months and I felt that I was entitled to 
a rest. My wife has been building a new home for the past 
year. Now, all you folks who have built a new home know 
that after you have lived with your wife during the process 
of a year of building — you know that you need a rest. (Laugh- 
ter.) Evidently some of you folks have built a home. (Laugh- 
ter.) We are all set to go. My passage is engaged. It will 
come as a complete surprise to my wife. Personally, I would 
be willing, I feel sure I would be willing to sacrifice that trip 

89 



in the interest of this cause if I thought I could do it even 
the slightest good, but I am a fearsome man and I have a 
wife. 

Mr. Marshall: We will appoint General Davis to see her. 
(Laughter.) 

The Chairman: If Mr. Brown will pardon the interrup- 
tion, I shall be perfectly delighted to go to Detroit tonight. 
(Laughter.) On the question of rest we might as well let 
him know that he isn't going to spend much time in Detroit. 
Mrs. Brown will have a splendid time while he is in New 
York. 

Mr. Brown: She has had one experience of that kind. I 
don't know what to say to you folks. 

The Chairman: Mr. Brown accepts the honor placed 
upon him. (Laughter and applause.) 

Mr. S. J. Rosenblatt: Delegates, I move that we close the 
debate. 

(The Chairman and Mr. Brown confer.) 

Mr. Brown: I don't think I have the right, under the 
circumstances, to accept a responsibility of this kind, I know 
how I go into things, if I accept this responsibility it would 
mean that everything else is dropped. 

The Chairman: The Chair has arranged for a long-dis- 
tance conference with Mrs. Brown, at the conclusion of which 
Mr. Brown will talk to Mrs. Brown. (Applause. ) While we 
are getting Mrs. Brown on the long-distance telephone, Mr. 
Rosenwald, on behalf of the Committee on Memorial to Mr. 
Schiff, reports that the Committee is ready. 

Mr. Rosenwald: Dr. Hirsch will present the resolution. 

The Chairman: Dr. Hirsch of that Committee will present 
the resolution and the Conference will be in order. 

Dr. Emil G. Hirsch (reading) : "The memory of the 
righteous is a source of blessing. 

"In this assurance the Conference, reminded of the va- 
cancy in the ranks of the workers, caused by the departure 
from earth of Jacob H. Schiff, by the circumstance that the 
day of its convening coincides with the first anniversary of 
this great and loyal Jew's transition from earth to glory, takes 
courage in the thought that the spirit of the beloved associate 
is still with us. His heart and mind were in the cause in behalf 
of which the Conference has assembled. He gave without stint 
to it of his rich experience and his broad, liberal generosity. 
His hand was open to every appeal made in behalf of the 
victims of wasting war. His counsel is indeed missed by all 
who were associated with him in the stewarding of this work. 
But his soul is marching on. In the spirit we are united with 
him. His great faith, never shaken in the destiny of his 
people, in the strength, moral and spiritual, of his fellow Jews, 
will inspire us, his example will incite us to untiring efforts. 

90 



We feel that every thought given to this cause is a spray 
deposited on the last resting place of our unforgotten fellow 
yokemate, a stone contributed to his memorial. But he needs 
no tablet of bronze or shaft of marble to be recalled of men. 
The righteous need no monumental symbol for their life. 
Their deeds are their imperishable memorial. This Rabbinical 
observation is amply and tellingly emphasized for us in the 
record of Jacob Schiff's days and doings. The Conference in 
its first session took occasion to devote solemn minutes to the 
name of him risen to Olam Haba, Dr. Hirsch reciting the 
Kaddish. 

"Mr. Julius Rosenwald, Chairman. 

"Mr. Louis Marshall. 

"Dr. Emil G. Hirsch. 

"Mr. Henry Morgenthau. 

"Mr. Mortimer Fleischhacker. 

"Mr. Irvin F. Lehman. 

"Mr. Jacob Billikopf." 

The following reply was later received: 

New York, September 26, 1921. 
My dear Mr. Rosenwald: 

I am in receipt of the touching telegram sent me by you 
as Chairman of the Resolution Committee and Mr. Abel Davis 
as Chairman of the Conference Committee of the Chicago 
rneeting yesterday and thank you and Mr. Davis for your cor- 
dial and sympathetic expressions. I appreciate your kind 
thoughtfulness in sending me this message which means much 
to me as it is but another evidence of the regard and respect 
which you felt for my father and is now given to his memory. 
It is a real consolation to us to know how his great qualities 
were understood and appreciated. 

Sincerely yours, 

MORTIMER L. SCHIFF. 

Dr. Hirsch: In presenting this resolution, expressing the 
feelings that actuated us yesterday and are still moving us 
today, I hope that they will be unanimously adopted by the 
Conference. This is really a new pledge that you and I are 
making that we will do our utmost to carry on the work that 
we have undertaken to a successful issue. You, friends here, 
need not be afraid; you are aware of the responsibilities that 
have come to us. We Jews have always felt that every Jew 
is his fellow Jew's brother, and here is now again a sad occa- 
sion for us to manifest this ordeal. The whole world has 
always looked upon the suffering Jew as the saviour of man- 
kind. That is our historic past; this has been our historic 
function. The Jews are suffering for sins that they have 
not committed. I shall not go into the details of the pic- 
ture drawn for us yesterday by more competent men, detailed 
to us yesterday by men who have come in contact with 
this suffering and misery day after day. We must all put 
our shoulders to the wheel. I am sure that every colleague 

91 



of mine, and for the moment let me assume that the other 
Rabbis may recognize me as their colleague — that every col- 
league of mine will take the opportunity during the solemn 
days that are coming on, to recall to their congregations the 
duty that lies before them. The spoken word will have more 
effect than the printed word in a campaign of this kind. You 
need men such as we listened to yesterday to depict to our peo- 
ple the actual conditions, and the Jewish heart has never failed 
and in this instance it will not fail. Upon the American Jew has 
come this new duty, and it is a duty we shall not shirk. We 
shall raise the sum that is needed and I shall do what little I can 
do, an old, a weak, and a garrulous man, I shall be glad to put 
myself at the disposal of our chief marshal, Mr. Brown. (Ap- 
plause.) If at any time Mr. Brown should think that my vocal 
cords might have some effect in bringing about a touch-down, 
of which I have heard today, he may command and I shall 
obey. Now, let us take a leaf from the book of our dear 
friends, the Christian Scientists; they never speak of diffi- 
culties; they ignore them; they are always working on the 
thought that if you believe that a thing is, it is, and if you 
believe that a thing will come, it will come; and so let us go 
out in the firm belief that we will succeed and then we shall 
succeed. Let us not think of the hard times. They are hard 
times, we know, but let us not let that thought come in our 
range of vision. In recognition of what Mr. Schiff did, let us 
go out in his spirit, following his example, and let us go to 
work all over the country and labor to organize. That is our 
memorial to Mr. Schiff ; that is our duty; it is our obligation to 
the name that we hold as Jews. The Jew must feel that here 
is an opportunity and the American Jew must know that he has 
the most sacred obligation and he must know that we shall 
fulfil our obligation. (Applause, and all rise.) 

Col. Guinzburg: It is impossible to say anything more 
about Mr. Schiff than what we all know. I move that the 
resolutions as presented by Dr. Hirsch be adopted by the whole 
Conference without any further discussion. 

Motion seconded. 

The Chairman : All those in favor of the motion will please 
rise. (All rise.) The motion is adopted unanimously by a 
rising vote. 

Mr. Marshall: Excuse me, may I be a disturbing element 
again? 

The Chairman: Mr. Marshall, with a report from the 
front. 

Mr. Marshall: I have the honor to report, gentlemen, that 
we have had a conference with Mrs. Brown. We find that she 
is a good soldier. She said if Mr. Brown is ready to accept, 
he will have her blessing. (Applause.) I want to propose 
three cheers for Mrs. Brown. 

92 




JACOB H. SCHIFF 

"His great faith, never shaken in the destiny of his 

people, in the strength, moral and spiritual of his 

fellow-Jews, will inspire us; his example will incite us 

to untiring efforts." 



(Cries of "Hip, hip, hooray, hooray, hooray.") 

Mr. Rosenwald: Mr. Chairman, may I say that in speak- 
ing to Mrs. Brown it almost brought tears to my eyes, she 
responded so beautifully. I want to congratulate Mr. Brown; 
I think it accounts for the kind of a fellow he is. (Applause.) 

The Chairman: Gentlemen of the Conference, the man 
of the occasion, and the man of the hour, our leader, Mr. 
Brown ! (Applause.) 

Mr. Brown: Ladies and Gentlemen — I think it means a 
whole lot for a woman who has had in her mind a most de- 
lightful trip to Europe, with practically all of the winter in 
southern Italy, at a few moments' notice to say that she is 
willing to give up her trip and I agree with what Mr. Rosen- 
wald has said, that if I have had any success in life at all, a 
large measure of it due to Mrs. Brown. (Applause.) She is 
a good, game sport. 

The Chairman: I say so. (Laughter.) 

Mr. Brown: I know that in going into this effort, she will 
be right at my right. Now, I want to say one thing to you 
fellows and you ladies here, that in campaigns I am somewhat 
of a slave driver, and I am not the diplomat that Mr. Rosenfelt 
here is. When I talk to you I am on the same side of the 
fence that you are. As I understand it, in taking this job and 
being surrounded by Billikopf here and Rubens and the rest 
of you fellows, everybody who has come to the Conference is 
to play the game, not fifty per cent., or ninety per cent., but 
one hundred per cent., and woe unto the man who starts to 
tell me how busy he is, because Nature has endowed me with 
a ver 

Mr. Marshall: profuse vocabulary. (Laughter.) 

Mr. Brown: One other thing here moves me; I might 
give you a first class example of it: I know what this cam- 
paign means. I am going into a campaign in Detroit for two 
million and a half. We have been working on it four or five 
months. We have raised as high as ten million dollars in 
Detroit with ease and now we are trying to raise a quarter of 
it, and we know exactly what we are up against. It is the 
toughest job we ever had. I know this is going to be a tough 
job. It will be made easy by the fellows who will put their 
shoulders to the wheel, not only you men here, but the men 
who are going to help you. I want to know how many of you 
men here are going to be with this campaign one hundred per 
cent. 

Mr. Marshall: All of them. 

Mr. Brown: Stand up. (All stand.) This is your word 
of honor, and we are going to hold you to it. Everybody 

94 



stood up, and with this gang of enthusiasts, this crowd of men 
who know how to get the money, who are willing to play the 
game, I don't think there is any question but what with hard 
work we will get $14,000,000 and some. (Applause.) 

Mr. Benjamin: Springfield, Illinois, is a small community. 
We had the honor of giving to this country that immortal 
Abraham Lincoln and also claim the honor of giving to Chicago 
the famous Julius Rosenwald. (Applause.) I say that in 
Springfield and Sangamon County, while we are a small com- 
munity, we will back up Mr, Brown and will do our share. 

Judge Asher: While we are in the spirit of Mr. Brown, 
might I make one suggestion? I propose in the form of a 
motion that we who are here, filled with enthusiasm and the 
spirit — Brown's spirit — let us see that this spirit of enthusiasm 
is not wasted, that we do not go home and forget in our own 
busy business the trials and tribulations of those in whose 
relief we are here assembled. A suggestion that I have put 
into operation in my own city, Worcester, Massachusetts, 
which is known as the heart of the commonwealth, and is 
going to try to be the heart of this relief movement — may I 
suggest to the members who are present that immediately 
upon adjournment they send a telegram to the committee of 
their community telling them that they must organize for the 
campaign. 

I feel that if we want to carry that spirit back with us, 
if we want to capitalize it — not for our own benefit, but for 
those on the other side — I say, get busy now, send a telegram 
of that nature, get your committee to work, organize it, filled 
with the Brown spirit, with the Jewish spirit, and there will 
be more happiness in the world for the next year. 

The Chairman: Is it the desire of the members of this 
conference that the substance of the telegram as prepared by 
the Judge be distributed among the members here for their 
use? 

Mr. Marshall: That will be a very useful thing. 

The Chairman: All right; it will be so done. 

Mr. Rosenblatt: In this campaign I am not going to tell 
what I am going to do, but I am Chairman of the Middle West 
Relief Bureau, taking in seven States, about 152 towns, and we 
are going to support Mr. Brown in this campaign with every 
dollar that we can raise. Every man who belongs to our com- 
munity will be with you. You can command us day and night, 
any time you like. 

Dr. Adler: May I have just a few minutes to make a 
report? 

The Chairman: We would not have concluded the con- 
ference until we had heard from you. Doctor. 

95 



Dr. Adler: No, but it was part of the resolution to ap- 
prove the reports of the sub-committee, and there is one, a 
very humble one, but which some of us think most important, 
that I want to speak of. Yesterday, first Rabbi Hirsch, and 
afterwards Mr. Seelenfreund, very properly said that we are 
taking care of the bodies of these peoples, what of their souls, 
their education, and so forth, and since the sum of money men- 
tioned for spiritual work seemed to be very small, I would like 
to say that since the very beginning of the war relief work we 
have been doing educational work, we have been doing it 
as a necessary part of the relief work. When we sent money 
to Poland for relief, for child relief, etc., naturally there 
were already schools, and the schools had to be kept open; 
it was a place where the children could be kept warm, and 
it was just as easy to keep the schools open and pay the 
teachers' salaries as it was to have them in the bread line, 
so for the first four or five years money was expended 
for relief work — that word "cultural" I hate — but for religious 
work in the various communities. Sometimes the people in 
the communities were so anxious for religious work that they 
preferred it to bread. In Lithuania as high as eighty per cent, 
was spent for spiritual work. In other towns it might be 
only twenty per cent. You gentlemen know that there are 
some differences of opinion about religious and educational 
work. We might have three schools or four schools, but in 
Eastern Europe they have twelve schools, or thirteen schools 
— I means parties — and it was very difficult to set down any 
policy by which education could be controlled from the cen- 
tral office in New York or even in Paris. Therefore, about a 
year and a half ago it was agreed that each one of the con- 
stitutent communities might set aside not to exceed 33^ per 
cent. 

Mr. Marshall: Subsequent to a certain date. 

Dr. Adler: Subsequent to the first of January, 1921, I 
think. 

Mr. Marshall: Since the first of November, 1920. 

Dr. Adler: Mr. Marshall corrects me — to the first of No- 
vember. I am chairman of the committee, but he has the 
better memory. But, anyhow, from a certain day 33 J^ per 
cent, may be set aside for religious and educational — or, if you 
please, cultural work. That means that American Jewry, col- 
lectively, with the help of the officers of the Joint Distribution 
Committee, can expend one-third of the money collected for 
such purposes, if it should be found necessary and the other 
conditions warrant it. The other two committees, the Central 
Committee and the People's Committee, have been carrying 
on work which I may fairly describe as belonging to their 
particular set of ideas. The Central Committee in the main 
has furnished funds for Rabbis and Yeshibas, which are carried 

96 



along on strictly orthodox lines. The People's Committee has 
furnished money for schools, carried on by the working men, 
and practically that means carried on in Yiddish — that is, 
from the socialistic point of view. The American Relief Com- 
mittee has supported all schools which were not supported by 
the other two committees. This has been our attitude in 
Poland, our attitude in Palestine and wherever we have been 
able to reach. We have to our credit still a very considerable 
sum of money for this purpose, and I want to assure every 
Rabbi and every other gentleman here that there is no one in 
the Joint Distribution Committee who has more at heart the 
seeing to the segregation of sufficient funds than I have. 

The Chairman: We have got to point No. 7 of the Com- 
mittee of Plan and Scope: 

"7. In the communities where there are war chests an 
immediate effort is to be made to secure pledges from the 
People's and Central Committees that no separate appeal 
should be made." 

Moved and seconded that recommendation No. 7 be 
adopted. 

The Chairman: Are you ready for the question? 

Mr. Joseph: I would not make this a fast rule, for 
in some communities the chest will not appropriate suffi- 
cient funds which the chairman would require of this commu- 
nity. I therefore would leave it to the several communities to 
decide for themselves. Sometimes it is necessary to make so- 
licitation among the Jews to complete the quota. 

The Chairman: The committee has practically represented 
your views. "An immediate effort is to be made," I presume 
wherever possible. 

Mr. Morgenstern: Cincinnati for three years conducted 
its campaign through the operation of a community chest, 
and for two years our experience was very happy and very 
fortunate. For two years the city of Cincinnati contrib- 
uted to the war chest $325,000, which represented its contribu- 
tion. This year, however, our community followed a different 
plan; it decided that before it would contribute any funds to 
foreign charities, as they called it, they would first fill the 
budgets of their local organization. The result was that 
whereas two years ago we contributed $325,000, this year we 
were able to get through the war chest only $48,000. In other 
words, it does not always follow that the war chest method, 
even if practiced in a city, is advisable for co-operation by 
this organization. I therefore, Mr. Chairman, offer as an 
amendment to insert the words after war chest : "and the local 
Jewish Committee deems it advisable to merge its campaign 
in that for the war chest," and to have the paragraph read 
thus. I would also move to insert the words, "In co-operation 

97 , . 



with the local committee." I do not believe that the Central 
Committee ought to undertake this without consultation with 
the local committee. I offer that as an amendment. 

The Chairman: You have heard the amendment offered 
by Mr. Morgenstern. Is there any discussion? 

Mr. Feiss: In the first place, I think the reference should 
be to community chest and not war chest. All of those that I 
know about that are still in existence have changed their name. 

The Chairman: Will Mr. Morgenstern please follow Mr. 
Feiss' suggestion? 

Mr. Feiss: I would like to offer this as a substitute 
amendment: "In the communities where there are community 
chests an immediate effort is to be made to secure pledges 
from these funds and where such pledges are received the 
People's and Central Committees shall be requested not to 
make separate appeals." Is that agreeable to you? 

Mr. Morgenstern: I think so, Mr, Chairman. I think that 
will cover it. 

The Chairman: The Doctor accepts Mr. Feiss' substitute 
motion for his own. 

Substitute motion seconded, put and carried, and recom- 
mendation 7 is adopted as amended. 

The Chairman (reading) : "8. It was decided that the 
question of using some of the material furnished by the speech- 
es in this conference be left to the Publicity Committee, to use 
in such form as they deem wise." 

Moved and seconded that recommendation 8 be adopted. 
'Motion put and carried. 

The Chairman (reading) : "9. It has been suggested that 
a statement be gotten up for campaign purposes, showing the 
total amount raised since the inception of the work, and the 
very small amount it has cost to raise this money, also show- 
ing in which countries the main amount had been spent." 

Moved and seconded that recommendation No. 9 be adopt- 
ed. Motion put and carried. 

The Chairman: It will now be in order that the report of 
the Committee on Plan and Scope be adopted as amended. 

Moved and seconded that the report of the Committee on 
Plan and Scope of the conference be adopted as amended. 
Motion put and carried. 

The Chairman: The motion is adopted. The Chair wants 
to call attention to the fact that the National Council of 
Jewish Women is to be kept in direct communication with the 
central headquarters and is desirous of co-operating in every 

98 



way possible. The Chair also wants to call attention to the 
fact that Mr. Brown requests that every one here who feels 
that he may be called upon as a volunteer speaker or volun- 
teer helper, etc., outside of his own community, hand his name 
and address over to Mr. Rosenfelt. Please do so before you 
leave. The Secretary again calls attention to the fact that if 
any one has failed to register that he do so before he leaves 
the conference. Your attention is also called to the fact that 
the Chicago Committee for raising funds has agreed on No- 
vember 6th as the opening day for its campaign. (Great Ap- 
plause.) Headquarters have been established in the Westmin- 
ster Building, corner of Monroe and Dearborn streets, and all 
of the out-of-town delegates are requested to spend as much of 
their time as they may desire this afternoon in the offices, on 
the Bank floor of the Westminster Building, where the Secre- 
tary has prepared samples of all the literature which the Chi- 
cago campaign is going to use. There are enough there so that 
every delegate who may report there may secure samples, see 
the exact machinery and see the plans which Chicago has 
already made for the pending campaign. 

The Chair has before him a complete list of all the dele- 
gates present, and he has requested Mr. Rosenfelt to make a 
memorandum after every name here as to the extent of the 
participation of every delegate in past campaigns, in order 
that they may be called upon or presented to the conference. 
The task is impossible because, as Mr. Rosenfelt said, everj''- 
one here has earned his seat in the conference by the service 
which he has given to the cause in the past. So the Chair is 
going to refrain from what he intended to do, namely, calling 
upon the best workers. You all seem to be in the same cate- 
gory. If there is anyone here who has anything to suggest at 
this time, the Chair will be delighted to hear from him. The 
Chair insists that at this time we hear not the final word, but 
one more word from Mr. Warburg. 

Mr. Warburg: I feel it would be very ungracious on our 
part did we not take the opportunity to thank the people of 
Chicago, and especially the Chairman, for the extraordinary 
services of this Council. I also want to thank him and thank 
the conference for the beautiful action that was taken in 
memory of Mr. Schiff. I know nothing could be more wel- 
come to the family than to know that the conference has 
selected Mr. Brown. This I know is more in the spirit of Mr. 
Schiff than anything else. Mr. Schiff never missed an oppor- 
tunity to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. Brown in the 
services of that campaign in which he took the lead, and in 
which Mr. Brown did the major part of the work. I think 
that the two dates joined together will mean something. I 
thank the Chairman and everyone for making this possible. 
It is also an act which should not be forgotten, and when we 
rise to adjourn I would like us to rise in a most heartfelt, 

99 




NATHAN STRAUS 



"Shall we - dare we - permit the labors of the past to 

be for naught? #^ Before God and man, let us meet 

our duty and declare to the world that we will not 

shirk it." 



warm thanks to Mrs. Brown for that soldier service she has 
given today and for whatever Mr. Brown may do in the future. 
I would ask permission to put that as a motion. 

The Chairman: Mr. Warburg moves that this conference 
rise in its appreciation of their love and affection of every 
member to Mrs. Brown for her kindness in permitting Mr. 
Brown to accept the trust. (All rise and applaud.) 

Mr. Marshall: I desire to second that part of Mr. War- 
burg's motion which has not yet been put, and that is the 
voicing of our appreciation to those of the community of Chi- 
cago for their hospitality, for the spirit they have manifested 
toward us who have come here, who have made it so pleasant 
for us to do this work, and I desire to emphasize the extraor- 
dinary manner in which you, Mr. Chairman, have presided over 
our deliberations, the fairness which has actuated every ruling 
on your part and every statement made by you. It will be a 
very precious memory to all of us. (All rise.) Three cheers 
for Davis. (Cheers given by all.) This is a case of deciding 
and then debating afterwards. Now I put the motion. Those 
in favor will say "Aye." (All say "Aye.") It is unanimously 
carried. 

Mr. Rosenwald: Mr. Becker has suggested that a tele- 
gram be sent to Mrs. Brown, expressing the sentiments of the 
conference and signed by the Chairman and such members as 
he desires to have sign it, and I hope that Mr. Warburg will 
permit that that may be added to his motion, to put this in 
the form of a telegram. 

Mr. May: And I do not think it is out of order to send 
greetings to Mr. Nathan Straus before we adjourn and report 
that we are very sorry that he was not with us as he was 
with us in thought. I make that as a motion. 

The Chairman: Moved and seconded that the greetings 
of the conference be sent to Mr. Nathan Straus, who sent his 
regrets over his inability to be present. 

Motion put and carried unanimously. 

Mr. Alexander: One suggestion that I wish to make, and 
I do not want to be misunderstood in making it, and that is 
if it is practicable I would like to see the names of the dele- 
gates to this conference given to the press. 

The Chairman: We have prepared a number of mimeo- 
graph copies which will be handed to every delegate, and a 
copy has also been handed to the Chairman of the Publicity 
Committee. 

Mr. Alexander : That is a big part. If practicable I should 
Hke to see it given to the press. A great many of us come 
from small communities, and in our communities it is very 

101 



much more difficult to maintain a good, strong Jewish organ- 
ization than it is in Chicago or New York, and we have no 
Jewish organizations outside of the B'nai Brith. 

The Chairman: Do you suggest that through the Associ- 
ated Press it may be distributed to the different communities? 

Mr. Alexander: That is it, so that in our communities we 
may know that Louis Marshall, Dr. Krass, Julius Rosenwald 
and those other men who are outstanding figures of American 
Jewry who are present at this conference have their heart and 
soul behind it. Away on the other side of the mountains those 
men are known by reputation just as well and are loved and 
revered just as much and have just as beautiful a monument 
in the minds of the people as they have here, but the only 
way our people find that out is by what the press tells them. 
They cannot hear what we say; they cannot see what we do. 

Mr. Baron: With reference to the suggestion proposed 
yesterday and ruled out of order, what is the attitude that 
we are to take towards campaigns that have been launched 
in some places by the People's Committee? We have an 
organization in Sioux City and we want to know what is 
the attitude of this committee towards the People's Committee. 
That question was also suggested by several other delegates. 

The Chairman: May I request Mr. Marshall to answer 
that question? 

Mr. Marshall: I am glad Mr. Baron has brought this up, 
because it was a question I desired to discuss yesterday. The 
American Jewish Relief Committee has from the very begin- 
ning sought to unite all action on the part of the People's 
Committee. We feel that there should never be more than 
one single campaign in any community, and we have made 
many concessions for the purpose of accomplishing that result, 
agreeing for that purpose to a division of credit upon the 
books of the Joint Distribution Committee of the various 
funds that are collected in various campaigns, so that there may 
be no possible ill feeling. We have made every possible con- 
cession, and I am very sure that there will be no difficulty as 
far as we are concerned, and I believe also that there will be 
very little difficulty on the part of the Central Relief Com- 
mittee or of the People's Relief Committee to come to an un- 
derstanding on that subject. We want but one campaign. We 
cannot afford to have more than one. If the People's Relief 
Committee goes out on an independent campaign or the Cen- 
tral Relief Committee does the same the chances are that it 
will cost the cause millions of dollars. They are giving very 
small sums; we are going out for large sums and small sums, 
but if you have a campaign which is conducted on the basis of 
taking anything that is offered, the chances are that in the 

102 



long run people will be attracted by a sort of Gresham's law 
to that baser coinage, and we therefore assure you that we 
will in the future, as before, make every possible endeavor to 
bring about one concerted campaign in all the work. 

Mr. Baron: What attitude shall we take in the year to 
come if the People's Relief insists on conducting their own 
campaign? 

Mr. Marshall: Well, I think it is the duty of the com- 
mittee to let the community know that anybody that is un- 
willing to act with our committee or another committee does 
not have the approval or sanction of the local committee. That 
is the only way to treat the organization. Mr. Brown is the 
leader of the campaign, which is conducted by all the associa- 
tions, and any association that pulls away, for one purpose or 
another, or for one reason or another, and is not willing to 
act in this co-operative movement, that organization is not 
entitled to the confidence of the community. (Applause.) 

The Chairman: The Chair recognizes Mr. Sol Kiser, of 
Indianapolis. I want to state for all concerned that here in 
Chicago we have solved the problem by a policy of give and 
take. We understand each other. When we want meetings 
we get together to talk it over and we have had no trouble. 
The People's Relief are willing to say that we have helped 
them and they have helped us. There is no difficulty about it. 

Mr. Sol Kiser: I only rise to ask Mr. Marshall a question. 
In Indianapolis last week a representative of the Hias at- 
tempted to launch a campaign for the benefit of that occasion. 
Is it the idea of the Joint Distribution Committee to join with 
them? 

Mr. Marshall: We have no relations with the Hias. They 
deal with the subject of immigration, which is entirely outside 
of this. That should be understood as distinctly as possible. 
We cannot be considered as in any way connected with immi- 
gration. I want to put it as distinctly as possible, as we in no 
way have any function to perform with respect to the subject 
of immigration. 

Mr. Hassenbusch: I want to speak on this same subject. 
What are we to do when this campaign of Hias conflicts with 
the campaign we have? 

Mr. Marshall: Can't your committee control the action 
in that regard? That is a local matter. You have your com- 
mittee. You may indicate what your duty is. You have voted 
a certain amount which you are prepared to give. If under 
the circumstances they apparently threaten to go into a cam- 
paign which will interfere with your campaign, hasn't your 
local committee the power or the ability to deal with that 
situation? 

103 



Mr. Hassenbusch: I think we have. 

Mr. Brown: I just want to say a word about the Central 
and the People's Relief in connection with the American Relief. 
It is no new experience with me to deal with those organiza- 
tions, I think the first activity of mine will be to call those 
groups together in New York City, and to sit down with them 
and make them thoroughly understand that unless we work 
together in behalf of this large fund the drive cannot be a 
success and as we are all vitally interested in the same thing, 
I am sure that those men will see the light and I believe they 
will work in complete harmony with our working organization. 

The Chairman: There ought not to be any doubt in any- 
one's mind what will be done at national headquarters when 
Mr. Brown expresses his attitude on that. 

Col. Lehman: This Conference has taken note of and 
doubly appreciates the broad, humanitarian way in which Mr. 
Hoover, through the American Relief Administration, is con- 
ducting the great work of relief in Russia and elsewhere in 
Eastern and Central Europe and desires to assure him of its 
continued support and co-operation. 

The Chairman: You make that as a motion? 

Col. Lehman : Yes. 

Motion seconded, put and carried unanimously. 

The Chairman: I want to ask Mr. Moe Levy of Norfolk, 
Virginia, to stand up. Mr. Levy, I want everybody to know 
you. I know what you have done in the past drives and what 
you are going to do in the next one. I want everybody to 
look at you and take inspiration from you. I want Mr. Dave 
Davidson to stand likewise. Mr. Davidson is from Sioux City. 
Sioux City and the whole state of Iowa have done splendidly. 
I wanted to give you about 20 or 30 minutes to tell the Con- 
ference all about it, but we have not had the time. Mr. 
Rosenfelt wants me to remember that you raised $70,000 in 
the last campaign. That is one of the reasons why I wanted 
all of them to know you. We want everybody here to know 
that America is just as friendly and has the best of good will 
for Canada in the same way that we individuals have for the 
Canadians, and I call upon Mr. Frankel, who is here from 
Toronto. Mr. Frankel, I want you to tell Mr. Brown what 
Canada is going to do in co-operation with the United States 
for this common cause of ours. 

Mr. Leo Frankel: May I have a drink, if you don't mind? 

The Chairman: Oh, yes, indeed. Best I have. 

Mr. Frankel: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — 

104 



Canada thanks the Chicago Committee for inviting Canada and 
I can assure you it has been a pleasure for me to be present, 
and so far as representing Canada is concerned, I only do this 
accidentally. My co-operators, that is, the representatives from 
Montreal and Quebec, have been asked to join this assembly, 
but to my sorrow I learned when I arrived here that they 
were not coming. However, as a representative of Toronto 
and Ontario, may I inform you of what we have done. We 
did not join you until last year. Possibly the reason was that 
we were not solicited, but, nevertheless, large sums of money 
found their channels to the countries where they were wanted, 
through England and France and probably direct. It was a 
year ago, more than a year ago, that I was interviewed by a 
representative of the J. D. C, and at that particular time the 
conditions were very bad. We were at that time holding in 
Canada every year a drive for the support of the dependents 
of soldiers in Canada, irrespective of what the Government 
was doing, and at that particular time I had the honor to be 
a member of that committee, and I also had the honor to have 
a captaincy, and we collected three or four millions every year 
in Canada. So you can imagine, as we started the war in 1914, 
and our sur-property tax went back to 1914, it was an arduous 
task. Afterwards I was interviewed by Mr. Miles Goldberg, 
and I telephoned my wife, and it was not a trip to Europe, it 
was only a trip to Florida, but we gave up that trip and we 
conducted a drive for $200,000 and we received subscriptions 
for $240,000. Our drive was a non-sectarian drive, and Sir 
William Mulock was the Honorary Chairman of the Toronto 
campaign, and Sir Edmund Walker was our Honorary Treas- 
urer. We raised $240,000, of which about $100,000 was given 
by non-Jews. The Jews of Toronto are not very prosperous. 
At this particular moment I will not keep you any longer; it 
was very kind of you to invite me here, and I must compli- 
ment you on your chairman, he is about the snappiest chair- 
man that I have ever sat under. In territory I represent as 
much as all of you together represent, but individually I do 
not, and I do not want to make it a case of the tail wagging 
the dog, therefore I shall not say anything, but I must say 
that my feelings have been entirely in accord with yours. I 
may say this: The signature of Mr. Rosenwald was also a 
special incentive to bring me here, largely for the amount of 
good he has done, not alone for Chicago, but for Jewry 
throughout the world. I was also particularly moved to accept 
the position of chairman of that drive by reason of telegrams 
from Nathan Straus, Mr. Warburg and Mr, Marshall, and I 
thought: 'T didn't know those signatures were so easy to 
get," because I have heard since that Mr. Marshall and Mr. 
Warburg since that time have been asked several times to put 
their signatures to several documents and have refused, so I 
must have been a preferred creditor under the circumstances. 
(Laughter.) I will not keep you any longer. I will bring 

105 



home greetings from Chicago and I assure you that when my 
colleagues think the time is ripe we will all do our duty and 
the St. Lawrence and the Niagara will not be a barrier be- 
tween your sentiments and ours. (Applause.) 

The Chairman: Will you give the Chair the pleasure of 
dividing the next five minutes as the Chair sees fit? I want 
to ask Mr. Rauh of Indianapolis please to stand. (Applause.) 
It is a pleasure to have examples like you. I present Mr. 
Jules E. Mastbaum, of Philadelphia. He is a splendid fellow 
and we are proud of him. I want every one of you to see him 
and know him. Has Mr. Eisenman left? No, he has not left. 
Mr. Eisenman. (Applause.) Now, my good friends, the Chair 
does not want to take honor unto himself to express the 
gratification and the pleasure of Chicago in having had this 
opportunity to have a conference here. One of our splendid 
workers, a fine man and an effective man, is going to say a 
word on behalf of Chicago, and that will conclude our delibera- 
tions. Let me present Mr. Charles Rubens, our honored Chair- 
man. Mr. Rubens. (Applause.) I just asked Mr. Rubens to 
get up for a second, in order that you may see him. Will 
Mr. Voorsanger stand up? (Applause.) I want you to see the 
man who has done such splendid work in Europe. Mr. 
Rubens, will you speak to the Conference? 

Mr. Charles Rubens (of Chicago) : Mr. Chairman, Ladies 
and Gentlemen — Up to a moment ago our Chairman, General 
Davis, conducted these proceedings exactly as 
I outlined him to do, but when he called 
upon me to speak he made the first diver- 
gence from the program I handed him. I 
think it was a mean trick to call on me when 
you are all ready to leave the room and ad- 
journ the Conference, but I am grateful for 
the opportunity of expressing the deep appre- 
ciation that we in Chicago have been at all 
instrumental in bringing about the inspiring, 
enthusing and marvelous deliberation of this 
most wonderful Conference. Chicago geo- 
graphically is probably as centrally located as any other city 
that could have been selected, and that so wonderful a result 
could have come from this meeting fills me, as a Chicagoan, 
with great pride, and I am sure each one is likewise proud. 

I don't think I am saying anything out of school when I say 
that there were some who came here who were not in perfect 
harmony with the decisions of the New York Committee and who 
felt that they had never been called in for any consultation and 
advice. Notwithstanding all of this, it did not take very long 
for this antagonism and discord to become amalgamated into 
the most harmonious and perfect whole. The lukewarm stand- 
patters became the most intense enthusiasts and I feel con- 

106 




vinced that the same method that was pursued at this con- 
ference will be repeated in the various communities throughout 
the country and that the same results will be forthcoming 
through getting your people together and talking things over. 

The warm Jewish heart is always looking for an oppor- 
tunity to respond to any call of distress and need that ema- 
nates from their co-religionists anywhere. The selection of 
David A. Brown of Detroit, in my judgment, spells absolute 
success for this appeal and when he says that the fourteen 
million dollars shall be forthcoming from American Jewry, it 
is almost equivalent to having the money ready for dis- 
tribution. ' 

Before parting, my friends, let me entreat that the 
enthusiasm that has been radiated through this conference 
abide with you and that you take it to your respective com- 
munities and radiate it there among all your fellow Jews and 
by so doing, I feel convinced that this call that comes from 
them over there will again be answered with liberality and 
promptness as the American Jew has in the past answered 
every other such call. (Applause.) 

The Chairman: When the motion to adjourn is made, 
you are all requested to walk downstairs to the entrance of 
the building for the moving picture and when that is over 
luncheon will be served on the second floor. Jimmie Becker 
says that we ought to thank the members of the J. D. C. for 
their great efforts and say we are behind them to the finish. 
(Applause.) Now, Jimmie Becker says we ought to put that 
in the form of a motion. Mr. Becker moves that we thank 
most sincerely and profusely the members of the Joint Dis- 
tribution Committee for their great efforts and say in unquali- 
fied terms that we are behind them. 

Motion seconded, put and carried unanimously. 

The Chairman: Mr. Kriegshaber, will you stand up before 
we adjourn. (Applause.) 

Moved and seconded to adjourn. 

The Chairman: The motion has been made and seconded 
that we do now adjourn, subject to the call of Mr. Brown. 

Motion carried. 



107 



LIBRARY OF COh GRESS 



020 930 169 6 



